Toomin's Last Game
by Korean Pearl
Summary: Tobias the Animorph's life was easier than Crayak had intended it to be. In one final game with Crayak, the Ellimist transferred what would have been Tobias' pain to another boy, a boy who has to survive it all for the Ellimist to win.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: Yeerks, Andalites, Hork-Bajir, Animorphs, morphing, none of it's mine. Unfortunately.

**TOOMIN'S LAST GAME**

Prologue:

_There they were. No adults in the room, no, they had all been taken by the Yeerks, herded into the subways like Becky had been. Only frightened children, babies, really, left alone in the daycare room to rot for all the Yeerks could have cared._

_I only needed one glance to tell me which one was his brat. What had Becky named her son? Tobias? He looked exactly like my bastard half brother, you could tell that so easily even though the kid was only two. And right next to him was my sister-in-law's daughter, the twerp's sister. Her name was Loren, wasn't it._

_I strode towards them and they shrunk back, obviously frightened. I bared my teeth at them, and then forced them into a smile. This was the moment my revenge on my brother would start, and I couldn't ruin it._

"_Tobias? I'm your uncle. Your father Timothy's brother. He sent me to pick you up since your mother can't come get you."_

_I made my voice soft and slow, and I could see Tobias relax a little bit, his irritating face reminding me so much of Timothy's. At least Loren looked more like Becky, it pissed me off a little bit less. But quelling whatever anger I had, I reached for Tobias and then picked him up in one arm, and Loren in the other._

_(You done?) the Yeerk in my head asked. (Can we get out of here now?)_

_I nodded mentally, and then strode off into the packed streets, shoving against the crowd with my strong shoulders._

_I had been infested awhile ago, and had decided to be a voluntary Controller for my second Yeerk, Naltoh. He and I had gotten along quite well. But after the Yeerks captured the morphing power, the only thing he could think about was to get the power for himself, get his own body, and leave me._

_And the only thing _I _could ever think about was how to get my revenge on Timothy._

_So we had agreed. He pulled the right strings to find out when the mass infestation of the townspeople would begin, so I could arrange for Becky to be infested and then go and get her kids. I knew that Timothy would fall to the Yeerks – he was a part of the police force, for crying out loud – and Naltoh had figured out when his unit was to be completely infested._

_But today had worked out even better than I had planned. Becky had dropped her children off at the daycare, as usual, and then had been swept along with the crowds down into the subway where she would be taken to the Yeerk pool._

_After taking Timothy's children we would go together to Tom, and pretend to take up his offer of being one of his hundred traitors. Once we both had the morphing power, Naltoh would leave, and we would never see each other again._

_Ethan's Memories_

My name is Toomin.

Ellimist, rather. A game-player, the one who plays with the lives and timelines of so many people.

The one cursed by the tongue of a Nadar.

What are Nadar, you may ask? You might as well. Even I can't define what has changed shape and form over the generations.

Somewhere, somewhen, in the Andalite Home World, a scholar decided what Nadar were. Without asking them of course, why would he do that?

And so this erudite intellectual classified a people:

_Nadar are very dangerous creatures. Bloodthirsty warriors, to be sure. However, I respectfully submit to the authorities that it must be noted that there are three classes of Nadar._

_I have taken it upon myself to classify them such. The 1st generation Nadar are the most dangerous. They adore killing and blood and generally grow up in harsher childhoods. The 2nd generation Nadar are noted for their apathy and indifference to life – they fight simply because they do not care. They, too, are not noted for having grown up in adequate homes. And lastly, the 3rd generation Nadar. They are predisposed to war, and fight well, but they are not attached to it until _after _they are first exposed to battle. If this class of Nadar was kept away from any type of fighting, they would be content to live in peace._

A people labeled, a people feared, and a people lost. Mass cleansing is not uncommon, and since the Andalite government did not wish to improve up the slums in which these Nadar were bred, they simply eliminated said slums.

But always, a few survive. A few persist, without knowing why they try to survive. And from these few more Nadar are bred, and again are stepped on by governments who do not understand that killing Nadar is just as effective as squeezing a hand around air. The air escapes the clenched fist, only to return as soon as the hand opens.

Nadar are born where there is oppression.

I reached my hand into the vast fabric of time and gently parted the strings until I came across the line of a family. My family, actually. From Star and Tree came more children, who had more children. These children were slightly different from the other Andalites – a genetic mistake on my part – and so they continued to grow differently, their children inheriting the differences.

The differences were slight – oh, so slight – but they were enough. A tail-blade that is curved ever so slightly more than the straight blade of those who were not my children.

Elemaki, they were called. Elemaki, my children were labeled. Elemaki, the oppressed.

There are Nadar in every land and in every time and among every kind of people. But never had I expected that I would be the father of so many, that so many Elemaki would turn in their despair to bloodlust.

I followed the line of my family, as it went down in time, and then I narrowed it down, following from mother to daughter as each gave birth to other. The fathers were harder to track – some wandering Andalite soldiers, others Elemaki _vecols_, and still others unexpected visits in the night.

I followed the line down until I reached a female Elemaki, only twelve years old, as she married and slept with an Andalite who abandoned her.

That Andalite was Alloran-Semitur-Corass. His wife was Saranai.

Saranai gave birth to twins, but I focused only on the girl, Mayanamar, who was to become Maya, the War Princess of the Nadar. 1st generation.

A single Nadar who would change the face of the universe forever.

I visited her. Just five-years-old, her brother and mother dead, and I promised to make her into a five-year-old human. I showed her Earth, and showed her happy humans, and promised her that life. And then I didn't give it to her until three years later, until after I visited her again.

_DAUGHTER OF SARANAI AND ALLORAN._

_The blood flowed backward, back into my finger, and it healed itself as I watched in astonishment._

_I wanted to scream, but my long habits of deference and silence held me. Instead, I looked around the room for him, and saw that everyone but me was frozen in place._

_A little boy was there, frozen as he bent over his work._

_Osgaron. He was Osgaron's age. When he died._

_Scream at him! Who cares if it is the Ellimist! Osgaron is your brother!_

_Was._

_But I couldn't. I couldn't. I couldn't even remind him of his promise three years ago._

_The Ellimist said nothing else, but the room began spinning around me, forcing me to close my eyes. When I opened them, I was standing in a room._

_It was an odd room, medium-sized and covered with a light gray grass that gave off no nutrients._

_An alien was sitting on a table, it seemed like, although there were several soft layers of something covering the table._

_Human, that was it. The alien was a human. It had been three years and I could still clearly remember when I had looked down on their planet Earth and seen them, seen them…_

_Happy._

_This human that was staring at me… I was no Nadar, so I couldn't tell how it was feeling. But still…_

_I could sense happiness coming from the creature. Happiness and peace._

_Two things that would never be mine._

_The human lifted itself up on its two legs. "Hi, um, who are you?"_

_I jumped at the sound of its voice. Startled, I blurted the first thing that came into my mind. (You make sounds like a kafit bird with that hole in your face, yet I can understand you.)_

_Then remembering that I was an Elemaki, I said, (I'm sorry, I mean, my name is Mayanamar-Semitur-Aventa.)_

_What in the world made me give her my full name?_

_Going back to why I had three names in the first place._

_We observed each other carefully, then the human spoke. "Greetings, Mayanamar. My name is Maya Lancing Hesser. I am a female human, or am now. I used to be…"_

_Her voice faltered off. What did she mean when she said she was a human _now_? I prompted her with a (what?)_

_The human looked at me for a moment, and then closed her eyes, concentrating on something. _

_She shriveled up rapidly, making me gasp, while wings shot out of where her shoulders used to be. Once she was a full kafit bird she reversed this transformation, back into the human that she had been._

_The human then pulled a green-blue band off of her finger, and said, "This is for you," as she walked toward me._

_I stared for a minute, in awe at the balance that this creature had. Forgetting my position, I again asked the first thing that came to my mind. (Don't you fall over with only two legs?)_

_The corners of the slit in her face turned up, but she didn't answer me. Instead she grasped on of my hands and put the band on the smallest finger of the hand that didn't hold my brother's fur._

_(What is it?) I asked._

"_It's a ring," she explained. "A… gift. Well, ok. You know how I just turned into a kafit bird?"_

_(Yes,) I responded. How could I forget that?_

"_This ring will give you the power to do that. To morph. And more. See, when you morph you can only stay in the body that you morphed into for two hours."_

_My genetic translating chip heard the word hours, but noted to me that this human's hours were different from mine. So accordingly, I asked, (What is hours?)_

_The corners of the hole in the human's face turned up again. "You have an internal clock that will tell you what two hours are," she explained. "However, with this ring, you can stay in morph as long as you like. Only don't go past the limit unless you have to, because the more you do so, the harder it is to get back to your original self. Also, once you morph with it, you can't morph without it."_

_I looked up at this human that was giving me such a strange power. (How do you morph?)_

"_You concentrate on the animal you want to morph into while touching it. That is called acquiring. Then you take your hand away and concentrate on it by yourself. To get back to your own body you think about your own body. Oh yeah, and one more thing. Give me your tail."_

_I stared, puzzled, but lifted my tail so that it rested in her hand. The human gently nicked my finger with the ring on it, and a drop of blood slid down and touched the ring, which glowed red. The human then released my hand._

"_Now no one can use the ring except you. Don't lose it. And after you try it, hide it in your kafit bird morph. Just concentrate on your body without the ring and it will work. And also, when you morph, it returns you to its original DNA, so basically morphing heals wounds. Creator's blessing," she finished._

_Now I was really confused, but the smallest glimmer of hope began to grow. (Thank you,) I told her softly._

"_Go now," she responded._

_(How?)_

"_Just step backward. The time portal will carry you back."_

_I stepped backwards obediently, and the room began to spin like the work room had before, when the human cried, "Wait!"_

_I looked up, startled._

"_Don't ever give up. No matter what happens. Don't you ever give up."_

_(Alright,) I responded._

"_I'm serious, don't ever give up. And – "_

_The room spun more rapidly, making her last words fuzzy and unclear just as I reappeared in the work room._

_What had she said? Tell princjhakt we won? What was a princjhakt? And won what?_

_It could have been a dream. It should have._

_Except the ring, she had called it, was on my finger._

_The factory was back to normal, and I quickly continued returning to braiding the metal bands, ignoring the fact that both my hearts were racing._

_The day finished quickly after such an enormous event that no one else had noticed. _

_What kind of creature was the Ellimist that he could transport me to… wherever he had taken me?_

_A very powerful one._

_And again, what did he want of me?_

What did I want of her? If only she could have known. But I could not tell her. She would not have understood. Would not have even cared.

Instead, I guided her invisibly, helping her get from the Andalite Home World to Earth, from Asia to America, from the streets to the suburbs, but always towards the Animorphs.

I needed her there. She was the seventh piece, the daughter of Visser 3's host. But I knew even then that the Animorphs weren't her final destination – oh no, they were simply another stepping stone on the way. A very important stepping stone, perhaps, but my plan for her had yet to be unveiled.

She went on the Blade Ship, with Rachel, ready to die. But instead of dying, she was taken prisoner. And instead of bowing to the torture she faced, she endured it. And instead of being infested, she escaped, taking with her as many former Controllers as she could.

Together they searched for a home, for the Nadar.

They found their home. They found their heart. Through blood and tears and sweat they carved out a place to live. They fought and defeated the One; they fought and defeated the Tellak who had wiped out their Home World with a single devastating blow.

Painful victory after painful victory had been theirs as I had looked after this single Nadar, as I had dipped my hand into her timeline to nudge her one way or another. Victory after victory until finally, this Nadar had approached me after her victory over the Tellak and had thanked me. _Thanked_ me, the being she had cursed when she first landed on Earth.

"_Who are you?" I asked. "And what is it that you want of me?"_

_But there was no bitterness in my voice, only a questioning tone, and I lifted my face to look into his more clearly, and saw the peace in his eyes._

_He began to speak, and I listened, as he told me of his past. Time stood still during his tale, and the sun froze on its spot in the horizon as I learned of the Ellimist. Of Toomin. Of the games he had played, and the games he still continued to play. Of what he had hoped for when he chose me. _

"_I had a lot riding on you," he answered quietly. "And I wasn't sure if you would pull through or not. But I guess I was right, after all."_

_The Ellimist looked around at the still sleeping Kyan, at the soft light filtering through, at the grass and trees we had re-grown, at the soft hum of the dawn and said, "Maya, War Princess of the Nadar, when the sun rises you will see mortals of all races mingling together, speaking and working and playing without a thought towards hatred. You will see Andalites and Elemaki fall in love. You will see Ssintha caring for their young, and not devouring them. You will see Kelbrid come down from their mountains and give rides to young humans, Somolonanians sharing their visions and their land to a People who were once lost."_

_I nodded. I had already seen this happen._

"_More will come, Maya. More mortals, desperate for a Home World, desperate to find a place where they can forget war. There are Kyan who will flee their planets, and come to Somolonania, hoping for a new life. There are Nadar who will come also, who will enter into the service of the Princess and who will go out boldly to foreign lands, ridding the universe of oppression. You know what it is to suffer. This land is a place where the weary can rest, where they can hope, and love, and live, in peace."_

"_That vision of hope and peace and love is what Rachel died for."_

"_You were just a kid," I almost whispered. "You were just a kid, like I was. Struggling to make the right decisions, not knowing how much they would cost you. But… I guess in the end, I made it out better than you did."_

_I could tell that the Ellimist was silently agreeing with me, and I almost knelt in the grass, overcome by all that he had just told me, overcome, thinking of every little action in my life that had led me to stand in the grass beside this being, when I had started out as just another half-breed female._

"_I hated you, you know," I told him, and then looked up at his face. "But you know, I was wrong."_

"_Thank you," he responded, but I shook my head. "No. Thank you. I was wrong to curse you… I… just, thank you. Thank you for everything, for trying, for doing your part to make this possible."_

And then I released her from my careful gaze, released her to live as she would see fit for I was done with Maya. Oh, she was still in my life. She had invited me to live on her planet as a simple citizen.

But as much as I wanted to, I could not. For I was not yet done with a final deal I had made with Crayak many years ago.

I still had one last game to play.

**Author's Notes**

This was pretty much completely summary, and was meant to serve a refresher for older readers and as an introduction for newer readers. It also starts directly after the one-shot, Loren's Sister, that I uploaded about a month ago. I really really recommend that you go read that first, as in, right now, if you haven't yet, because there are a lot of riddles in that fics that this fic solves, but without the riddles the revealed solutions aren't very interesting.

I'll be updating soon-ish, now that I'm back in the States and actually have constant access to the Internet. Until then, thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

_I carried Tobias and Loren back to their house, hoping my wife had done as I told her and opened the door using the spare key I knew they kept under their front mat. Lisa was drunk more often than not, so I couldn't depend on her for very much, but I wanted Tobias and Loren to feel at home, to feel as comfortable as possible so they wouldn't remember this day._

_For I had already decided that I didn't want Loren and Tobias to know they were siblings. I knew they were both Timothy's kids but right from the beginning Tobias stood out to me, his entire face screaming, "Timothy! Timothy! Timothy!" For that, and other reasons, I wanted him to be alone in the way I was going to treat him, but what was I going to do with Loren? I could dump her at an orphanage, but if I did I would have no control over her life._

_(Take her as your own kid,) Naltoh suggested suddenly. (I mean, if you treat her badly, she's going to hate herself for being your daughter. It won't make her life as bad as you want Tobias' to be, but it'll still be pretty bad.)_

_Make her my own daughter… but how? Just present her to my wife and tell her that she was hers as well?_

_Might as well try. I had a son about Loren's age, and I could just tell Lisa that Loren was her daughter and she probably wouldn't even remember not having twins, the drunk that she was._

_(Genius,) I told him, and Naltoh cackled in my head, his eagerness obviously seeping out. Naltoh was like me in that vengeance was a great focus of his, and so he had helped me along in my own attempt for revenge. At the moment Naltoh had no one in particular he wanted to get back at, and so was investing himself in helping me get even with Timothy._

_(Why do you hate Timothy so much?) asked Naltoh suddenly, as I walked up the steps. I responded, (That would take an entire lifetime for me to explain – it'd be easier if you just found it in my head.)_

_I could feel Naltoh flitting through my memories, and pieces of my childhood and more recent events came up in flashes as he did. I waited for him to finish before he nodded mentally, and a sense of understanding came from him._

_(I'd hate him, too,) he told me as I opened the door to find my wife sitting at the table, a bottle in her hand and my son Zach sleeping on the couch nearby._

_I strode forward and placed Loren on a couch perpendicular to the one Zach was sleeping in and said, "I finally brought our daughter home. She's been in the hospital for the last year, heart problems, but they said she's healthy enough to take home now."_

_Lisa looked at me drunkenly. "Daughter? I don't have a daughter."_

"_Well, seeing as you were drunk while you gave birth to them, how would you remember?" I asked her, pleasantly, just a hint of warning in my voice. She looked at her bottle, took another drink, and then glanced over at the two children. "Daughter… I have a daughter? What did I name her?"_

"_Loren," I supplied, and then put Tobias on the ground, pushing him towards her. "And this is Timothy's son."_

_Lisa grunted. "Why are you giving him to me? I don't want him." She waved her hand into the air, dismissing him, and Tobias stopped, looking at me, and then at Lisa, before coming back to me. I pushed him away again, and smiled inwardly._

_This was going to be a perfect environment for Timothy's boy._

_Ethan's Memories_

"Hey, John, you alright?"

Nora looked to her older brother, worried at his silence. It wasn't like John to stay still for long periods of time, and was even less likely that he should be quiet for longer than a few seconds. However, ever since the two had boarded the ship headed for Earth, he had been silent, staring out at the whiteness of Zero-space when he wasn't sleeping or eating.

Her brother turned to her, and nodded, saying, "Yeah, I'm fine." But his wrinkled brow contradicted his words and so Nora waited, knowing that given a few moments he would open up to her.

Sure enough, after enough silence had passed, John spoke up. "It's just that, I mean, you don't think the Earthlings will think we're weird or anything when we call each other brother and sister? I mean, we're not related by blood, and we don't even look alike, we're like different… um, what was the Earthling word?"

"Races," Nora supplied, watching John as he began pacing back and forth. It was clear that this was an issue that had been bothering John, but she suspected there was something deeper that John didn't want to bring up quite yet.

"Yeah, that. I mean, I guess we could say we're adoptive brother and sister, right? Because I guess that's what we are. But I mean, that isn't even really fair, is it? I don't even remember when we decided – I was like four and you were three. We were the only ones without parents, right? So of course we'd go for each other. Alexa said it was really sweet, actually, when we decided to be brother and sister but I feel like if I can't remember making a decision it's almost like I never made it, right?" John said, the words spilling out faster and faster. "I mean, I guess that's how I always dealt with being a Controller, right? I did some bad stuff, Nora, but I don't really remember doing it, so it's like it never happened to me, you know? I mean, of course it happened, but like c'mon, I was like a toddler when I was a Controller and my real memory only started after I escaped the Blade Ship with Princess Maya and the other Former Controllers and like after we landed on Somolonania and freed you guys from the Vampire Spiders. So it kind of doesn't count, right?"

Nora hid a grin, as John continued talking, the words spilling out crazily. Whenever John was upset or afraid of something he started talking _extremely _quickly, and wouldn't stop until someone stepped in.

"John, what are you afraid of?"

At that, John stopped with a small, quick smile on his face, and then responded quietly, "Earth."

"Earth is where you were infested, so you're not that fond of Earth, huh?"

Just a statement, that John could refute or accept. Nora liked to echo people's thoughts into words that they sometimes were afraid of using. She had actually been very surprised when John started talking about being a Controller – of all the things John talked about, he had only brought up being under control of a Yeerk once before, and that had only been to Nora.

John nodded heavily, and then looked at Nora. "I don't even know why I agreed to this exchange program thing. I mean, well, I do. I… I've been afraid of Earth for a long time. It kind of represented everything I didn't want to think about, you know? So… I guess part of the reason I agreed was because I wanted to see Earth for myself, not through my memories which are probably all inaccurate anyway."

"Yeah," Nora agreed. "I know what you mean. Except for me Earth isn't what's scary, it's the other continent on Somolonania, the one that isn't Mayaneria. The Vampire Spider's country. I mean, you know how I refuse to go even near the shoreline because I'm always afraid that one of the Spiders will have somehow managed to swim across to Mayaneria."

Nora stopped for a moment, and then shuddered involuntarily, just thinking about the aliens that had dominated her infancy. Her parents had been among the many human slaves whom the Spiders had abducted, and she had been born on the planet Somolonania. Her parents had been killed, their blood sucked out by the Spiders shortly after she was born and so she had grown up with a deep-rooted fear of anything associated with the Vampire Spiders.

Nora felt an arm around her shoulders, and looked up to see her brother giving her a one-arm hug. "Sorry, Nora, I didn't mean to make you think about them," he said gently, but Nora shook her head. "No, you're braver than me, John. I would never ever visit their country, for anything."

She could feel John's shrug. "No, it's different though. I mean, there aren't any Yeerks left on Earth. Maybe if all the Vampire Spiders died over there, which they will with no humans to feed off of, forcing them to eat each other to death, you could go. So maybe after they all die you'll be able to go."

"Yeah," Nora responded. "That's true. I think I could go after that. I'd still feel like a Vampire Spider was behind me every second, but I think you're going to feel that about the Yeerks while on Earth, right?"

John nodded. "Yes, I am. So stick with me, okay? I'm going to need someone to tell me when I'm going crazy."

Laughing, Nora pushed her brother gently. "Like I'd ever leave you." He smiled back, and then put both arms around his sister, the two of them hugging each other, the ship floating gently as it left the whiteness of Zero-space and entered the darkness of real space, dappled with stars.

Earth was a round ball spinning in the view of their window, and Nora gave John an extra tight hug when she felt him swallow.

"Here we come," she said, as the spaceship they were in maneuvered into orbit around their original homeland.

--

Dawn's cold pale fingers crept through the window and touched Tobias' face, gently caressing his scarred cheeks. He woke up with a jerk, and instantly looked around to make sure his uncle wasn't there.

Good. There was no one there. He looked at the clock – it was 6:32 AM, just two minutes later than he usually woke up.

Picking himself up from the wooden floor, Tobias yawned and then walked around the table to get into the small kitchen that was in the back of the first floor. He knew that the house would start waking up at around seven, and that he had to have breakfast ready by then even though no one would actually come down to eat until right before the school bus came, at 7:46.

No one, that is, but his uncle.

His uncle always came down exactly at seven, and Tobias always had his food prepared, cut and ready to be eaten. His uncle worked at construction and so left early every morning, right after his breakfast, taking a packed lunch that Tobias also prepared. And although Tobias knew there would be consequences if he didn't prepare the food the way his uncle liked it, Tobias' favorite time of every day was still that half hour he could have all to himself without anybody awake to taunt him, order him around or hurt him.

With skilled hands Tobias began getting together the materials he needed to make pancakes, and decided to add eggs to today's breakfast as well. Pulling out bread to make toast, Tobias quickly made himself a breakfast that he could eat while making his uncle's breakfast.

His uncle didn't like to see him eat, and so Tobias had learned throughout the seventeen years of his life to eat while he cooked, finishing his meal before his uncle came down. He did the same during dinnertimes, although that was harder if his uncle was in the house – he would have to sneak the food to his mouth, no eating it outright like the way he did during breakfast.

All in all, the best half hour of his day really was from 6:30 AM to 7:00 AM.

Busying himself, Tobias cracked the eggs, put out a clean set of silverware on the table, flipped the pancakes, and put the bread in the toaster, mindlessly performing these familiar activities.

A creak on the stairs and Tobias rushed to put the buttered toast out, and then flipped the pancake onto the plate, pouring just the right amount of syrup on it. The eggs came next and then finally a glass of water.

The food was all out. Tobias waited by the side of the table, pulled the chair out for his uncle and then waited by the side of his chair.

Tobias had been doing things for as long as he could remember. Well, there had been a time when his uncle's wife had done most of the cooking, but after her uncle had divorced her when Tobias was around ten, the burden of running the household had fallen on him. Tobias' uncle had then insisted that Tobias wait on him whenever he was home for meals, and Tobias could not even conceive of refusing.

Five minutes. Ten minutes. His uncle continued eating steadily, not saying anything, and Tobias began hoping that this morning might be one of the few that his uncle would leave without speaking to Tobias at all when all of a sudden his uncle looked at him and laughed. "So, Tobias, how does it feel to know that you'll be waiting on me for the rest of your life?"

As usual, his uncle always found the perfect words to remind Tobias of his position in life – that of worthless servant. Tobias bit the inside of his lip and said nothing, just hung his head, knowing that he had to acknowledge his uncle's words or there would be worse consequences. His uncle laughed again, and then pushed back his chair, picked up his lunchbox and without another glance strode out of the house.

Tobias waited until he could hear their old car start before starting to clear the table. He checked the time – 7:17 AM. He had his usual twenty-three minutes to prepare breakfast for his four cousins, and so he began instantly, making sure not to make any mistakes that they could report to his uncle.

Tyler came down first, ate quickly, and then left. At age fourteen and three years younger than Tobias, he was the nicest to Tobias, mostly because he left the boy alone and only occasionally bothered him. Tobias was grateful for Tyler's existence, because without him he knew that Zach, Tyler's sixteen-year-old brother, would have often been bored and often taken out his boredom on Tobias.

Zach and Loren came down together, both of them fighting already. They were twins, although they looked nothing alike, Loren with her dark brown hair and skin color that always looked like she was tanned while Zach was blonde and much paler. Tobias was the darkest out of all of them, and he had guessed that his father hadn't been completely white like his uncle, but his uncle never spoke of his father except to constantly say Tobias was exactly like him, so Tobias didn't really know much about his father or his mother.

The only memory Tobias had of his parents was a single glance of a laughing and beautiful mother that he was walking clumsily towards, with his father standing and smiling by the side. Tobias figured, however, that he had made the memory up because in his memory his mother looked very similar to Loren. I probably just took whatever female face I was most familiar with and put it on the face of my mother, Tobias thought, looking at Loren. Neither of them spoke to him, but continued quarrelling with each other, arguing about something to do with the bathroom.

"It's ridiculous that the four of us have to share a bathroom," Loren snapped at Zach. Tobias made sure that he was forgotten, not wanting to have their wrath turned on him. "Dad gets a bathroom all to himself, but you, me, Tyler _and _Jake have to use one? Also, it's annoying that both of our rooms are connected to it! I always have to lock both doors before I can use it, and then you and Tyler keep banging on the door whenever I'm trying to do my makeup."

"Yeah, that's because you take like an _hour_ in there. And I mean, at least you're sharing a room with Jake and not Tyler. Jake takes up less space."

Loren's eyes went flat and Tobias carefully stepped backwards as she hissed, "Zach, I am _sixteen._ Jake is a _seven-year-old._ Don't you think it's a little _weird_ that we have to share a room? My friends would _die _of laughter if they knew."

Zach just laughed, and Tobias knew that would infuriate Loren even more. "What are you going to do then, make Jake sleep out on the floor like Tobias?"

He jerked his thumb over at Tobias who was trying to be inconspicuous. Tobias looked down at the ground as the two of them stared at him, and then returned to their argument. Tobias sighed silently. This was turning out to be one of the better mornings after all.

"Well, Miss Princess, I have to go catch the bus," Zach finally retorted. He left his food and walked out of the door. Loren picked up her backpack and hurried after him, shouting at his back as he ignored her.

There. Finally gone. Tobias brought the dishes to the kitchen and ate the leftover food, when he heard Jake come softly down the steps. Smiling, this time for real, Tobias looked out to see his youngest cousin rubbing his eyes as he yawned.

"Good morning, Jake," Tobias called out, and Jake grinned in return, responding seriously, "Good morning, Tobias."

"What would like to eat today?"

"Just cereal," responded Jake. "I don't want you to have to work anymore than you already do."

Tobias nodded and then ducked back into the kitchen, pulling out a bowl, spoon, milk and a box of some generic whole wheat cereal. Jake was… special. Not like a normal seven-year-old. Tobias had been able to tell from the moment his uncle had placed Jake in Tobias' arms six years ago, with a rough command, "Take care of him."

Tobias had loved him like he loved no one. Jake had been the light of his life when young, learning to speak coherently at age two, and mastering reading and writing a year later. His uncle had tried to teach Jake to hate Tobias at around that age, but Jake had been too smart, too independent by then and so he merely pretended. But when no one else was around, Jake and Tobias fell into an easy pattern of camaraderie that they could only show to each other.

"Tobias, I've been thinking about something," Jake said just as Tobias brought out his food and set it up in front of his cousin.

"What?" Tobias asked, pouring the cereal and milk into Jake's bowl. Tobias served out of habit to all of his relatives, but he truly enjoyed being able to give to Jake. "Just now?"

"Yes," Jake answered precisely. He put his spoon in the bowl and began eating, his face thoughtful. Then he looked up and said, "It's rather important, so I think I will eat in the kitchen today while you clean, so you won't miss anything."

The two usually spoke through the open doorway that connected the kitchen with the rest of the first floor, but sometimes Jake liked to sit on the counter while Tobias did the morning dishes. Tobias always enjoyed it more when Jake was with him in the kitchen, but he never expressed his opinion – after all, it had to be more comfortable at the table then sitting up on the counter.

The two boys situated themselves, and then Jake began as Tobias turned on the water. "Tobias, I think I am a mutant."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you know I'm more intelligent than the average person, right?"

Tobias nodded, and smiled. "You're a lot smarter than a lot of people, Jake."

Jake looked at his bowl and then said, "Well, usually genetics has something to do with people who are above average intelligence. They have something to do with why the person is the way they are. But my father and my mother, from what I've heard of her, are very ordinary people. So I think a genetic mutation caused me to be the way I am."

"Yeah, that sounds like it could be true," Tobias admitted, reaching for Jake's empty bowl to wash it. "But I really don't know. You don't want to ask an idiot like me for confirmation, I mean, I was even held back a grade. I don't know anything."

Jake shook his head vehemently. "Tobias! You shouldn't stay stuff like that about yourself. The only reason you were held back a grade is because you spent practically your entire fifth grade taking care of me and didn't go to school at all. So if anything, it's my fault that you were held back."

Tobias grinned. "Nah, of course it's not your fault. It doesn't matter though, anyway, I do just as bad. It's just annoying to be in the same grade as Loren and Zach, that's the only thing."

"Hmm… do they bother you that much in school?" Jake asked, his gaze thoughtful.

"Loren doesn't, but Zach and his friends do."

Just thinking about them made Tobias nervous. They were the reason Tobias was glad he never took the bus to school, although the real reason he didn't ride the bus was because he was also cooking and cleaning while it came and left. It didn't matter that much though, since the school was only a twenty minute walk away. Tobias was late to his first class every single day, but it was gym, and luckily this year, his junior year, he had gotten Mr. Hassler, the lazy one who never took attendance. Previous years Tobias had not been so lucky.

"I should go to school now," Jake announced as soon as Tobias was done cleaning. Tobias helped him down, and then they walked together to Jake's bus stop, Tobias dawdling as much as he could before he would have to head to school.

Jake's bus was out of sight when Tobias turned and began walking to the local high school. Late again, he thought. To another _awesome_ day of school.

His cynical sarcasm always kicked in every morning after he dropped Jake off, like the clockwork that controlled every other aspect of his life. Kicking at the sidewalk curb as he began jogging, not wanting to miss his second class either, he sighed. Hey, maybe something nice will happen today. Something new. Maybe Zach and his friends won't jump me. Maybe Loren won't look at me like I'm something she wants to flush down a toilet. Maybe humans from outer space will come visit the school today. Maybe the Yeerks will come back and in the confusion I can run away.

Maybe someday I'll be free.

**Author's Note**

You know what, I decided I'll just post these two chapters up together. I've already written this one, and I think this chapter is more interesting than the prologue anyway.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

_Dear Diary,_

_It was my twelfth birthday yesterday, and Tobias tried to run away during the party. He was gone for an entire night, and there wasn't any breakfast in the morning so we had to eat cereal. But the police caught him and brought him back, and Dad acted like he had been so worried that Tobias had been gone. The police told Tobias not to run away again, but Tobias didn't say anything._

_Dad made Tobias sit in the middle of the room after the police left and then he started hitting him over and over again and calling him nasty names. I felt sorry for him, but I didn't want Dad to hit me so I just stayed in my room, but I could hear him crying even from upstairs. Dad even heated a hot poker and pushed it against Tobias' right cheek. There's a scar there now, but there were already scars from when Dad threw a broken plate at Tobias._

_Sometimes I think Tobias is going to kill himself if Dad doesn't kill him first. Dad told us kids that he was going to kill Tobias when Tobias turned eighteen, but we aren't allowed to tell Tobias that. Right now Tobias is thirteen, so he has five more years before he dies._

_Love, Loren_

"Hey, Tobias…"

Without even looking up from his locker, Tobias knew that he was in for it. The taunting, drawn out tone was enough to tell Tobias all he needed.

He considered running for a moment, but he knew that if he did, they would just go after him and humiliate him even more for trying to get away. It was better just to take it quietly and not react.

He turned to face the two boys who were circling him and eyeing him with smirks on their faces. Seth and Eric this time. They weren't a part of Zach's closest circle, but Tobias knew that didn't matter very much – he was pretty much an open target that anyone who wanted to could take aim at.

Eric came up first and shoved Tobias lightly, just enough to make Tobias lose his balance and hit his locker with his shoulder. He winced ever so slightly, and then instantly regretted doing so when Seth laughed. "What, little Tobias can't take a little pain?"

I can take more pain than you think, Tobias shot back silently, the resentment starting to heat up. Do you think I got these scars from nothing?

Fear shot through him as Eric reached and touched Tobias' cheek, and involuntarily, Tobias pulled away, knowing as soon as he did that he shouldn't have. Eric's eyes narrowed and he yanked Tobias' right arm, dragging him out into the hallway.

"Why so silent, Tobias?" Seth drawled, closing in on Tobias' left side. Eric's grip on his right arm was vise-like, and Tobias knew better than to even try tugging it away. Swallowing, Tobias clenched his left fist, tensing his body, waiting for the blows to start…

"Guess I'll just have to _make_ you talk, then," Seth finished, and Tobias almost wanted to roll his eyes. If I had spoken to you, you would have had to _make _me shut up, you know that?

No time to think though. Seth strode up to Tobias' and shoved him backwards, Eric letting go of his arm at the same time. Tobias stumbled, and then fell, instantly coming back to his feet, preparing himself for the next round.

Eric came swinging in, his fist aimed for Tobias face and instinctively Tobias raised his arms to guard his head. The fist glanced off of his arm, but at the same time Seth had planted a punch right in Tobias' gut causing the boy to double over, breathing heavily.

Seth lifted a foot and shoved Tobias to the ground, and he crumpled, up the pain in his abdomen spreading, unable to react when Eric violently shoved his foot into his eye. The pain exploded in his face, and he cowered on the floor, trying to present as small of a target as possible, feeling Seth's shadow loom over him as Seth kicked him again, in the back.

Tobias gritted his teeth, waiting for the next blow, but then suddenly he heard a muffled yelp, yet there was no pain. Opening his eyes, he could see from his vantage point on the floor that Seth was also on the floor, knocked out cold, and that Eric was being shoved up against the lockers by a small dark-skinned girl.

Painfully Tobias tried to lift himself up, trying not to feel too much glee at the fact that Eric and Seth were getting beaten themselves. They would probably want to take it out worse on Tobias tomorrow, but he had a better chance of avoiding them with tomorrow's schedule than he had today.

But for now, he was content to slowly pick himself up off the floor, feeling his bruises, trying to estimate whether he could hide them from his uncle or not. He wouldn't have minded getting beaten up at school as much if he hadn't known that his uncle would give him twice as much of a beating every time Tobias came home with a bruise from a fight. His back and stomach would be fine, but his eye…

Tobias touched his left eye and then grimaced at the pain, and bit his lip, knowing that a black eye called for serious punishment from his uncle. At least this girl had stopped them before they had given him two, but he couldn't help but be bitter that he hadn't been fast enough at avoiding something so obviously damaging as a black eye.

There was a _whump_ and Tobias turned to see that Eric was now on the ground, also knocked out. He looked up to see who his rescuer was, and saw her grinning at him.

"Hey, those were bullies, right?" she asked, almost cheerfully. She held out her wrist that had a flexible plastic bracelet on it, a few inches wide, and aimed the front of it first at Seth, and then at Eric saying twice, "Computer, take picture."

Tobias saw a screen on the bracelet that flashed each time she gave the command. He stared at the girl, mouth open, as she turned and smiled at him. "So, what's up?"

For the first time, Tobias didn't even have a silent retort, but stood there, gaping.

Suddenly the girl's brow wrinkled and she stepped over Seth and Eric's prone bodies. "Hey, you've got a pretty bad injury on your eye… let me help you with it."

She reached into a bag she had over her one arm, and then pulled out what looked like a clear eye patch without the strings to attach it to the person's head. The girl gestured him forward and Tobias obeyed, holding still as she put the eye patch on his black eye.

She stepped away, and then smiled, obviously pleased with herself. "It's a really nice thing – it heals the injury and while it's doing that it molds to your face, or your arm, or wherever you put it so that no one can tell that it's there. It projects a little hologram over it to match with whatever your eye should look like normally."

Tobias turned to look at his reflection in the lockers, and to his surprise, he couldn't tell that there even _was _an eye patch on his eye. He blinked, and the holographic eye blinked with his actual one, exactly in rhythm.

"You can't wink with it," the girl told him, sounding regretful. "But it works for everything else. But anyway, you can keep it; just give it back to me tomorrow. It'll stay on your eye until your eye is healed, and then it'll be really easy to peel off. But until then, it doesn't budge."

"Thank you," Tobias said finally, still staring at his reflection. This would save him from his uncle tonight. "Thank you. I…"

"No problem," the girl said back, smiling again as Tobias turned to look at her. She looked down at the two boys still on the ground and said, "I guess I got carried away, you know? Real live bullies and everything. I was so excited to be a maya and fight them."

Be a maya? What did that mean?

"Oh, you don't know what a maya is, right?" the girl asked. Tobias started. How had she known what he was thinking? "Well, you know Princess Maya, right? Everyone knows Princess Maya."

"Maya the Animorph?" Tobias asked slowly. Princess Maya? He had learned in his history classes that the people on the Nadar planet called Maya the Animorph Princess Maya… this girl had to be from that planet! How else would she have all this technological stuff?

"Yeah, her. You know, like, in her past, she fought bullies and stuff like that, and so in our schools we have elected mayas who do that kind of thing. Strong kids, ones who don't care about the teasing and who aren't afraid to stand up for other people. I never was a maya since I was always too shy, but I decided I might try it here."

"So you're from the Nadar planet?" Tobias asked. "Why are you here?"

"Nadar planet?" the girl responded, her face breaking into a grin. "Is that what you Earthlings call it?"

"Earthlings? You call us Earthlings?"

The girl began laughing, and Tobias felt his face relax into a smile. This was so strange…

"I'm here for an exchange program with this school," the girl said. "We're just here to experience Earth, basically. I've never been here before. My brother was born here, but he was a Controller since from the time he was born, practically, and his Yeerk was one of the Hundred Traitors on the Blade Ship. So he doesn't really remember Earth that much."

"Oh," Tobias responded, unable to think of anything else to say. It was weird for him to actually be having a conversation with someone other than Jake… no one spoke to him outside of telling him what to do, and to have this random girl start talking to him like he was just another normal kid was just… odd.

"So, I'm guessing you're a tobias?" the girl asked suddenly, and startled he looked up. He had pegged her as perceptive, but how did she know his _name_? Did she have some sort of technology to read minds?

"What?" he managed.

"A tobias. You know, a kid who gets attacked in these schools by bullies. Are you?"

Slowly he nodded, trying to make sense of what she was saying. It sounded like in the Nadar planet they had taken the Animorph names and attributed certain characteristics to them and now they were apart of common language.

He wondered vaguely how Tobias the Animorph felt about this particular attribute, and then thought for a moment, maybe I can ask her. Maybe I don't have to be quiet.

The words were clumsy on his tongue, but he tried. "You… you know Tobias the Animorph?"

The girl nodded. "Yeah, I know President Tobias."

President. Okay… um… wow. How well connected was this girl anyway?

"Do you know, is he… upset that his name is used for people like me?"

The girl shook her head vehemently. "He thought it was hilarious! He and Princess Maya had a really good time laughing about it together, I read it on his blog. Princess Maya told John and me about it too when she came to visit us."

She knew an Animorph personally? Maya the Animorph came to visit her? Tobias' eyes widened, but the girl was shaking her head again. "No, no, we're not anybody special. I'm not, at least. John is the 1st Kyan, so Princess Maya knows him since Aristh Tom's Yeerk threatened to kill John on the Blade Ship if Princess Maya didn't bend to his will. You know the story, right?"

Tobias shook his head, his thoughts swimming. Kyan? Aristh? What in the world?

"Wait, sorry, I'm confusing you. What do you need explained?"

He stared. Wow. This girl was cool, but kind of creepy.

"Um, what's a Kyan? And an Aristh?"

"Oh, Kyan means citizen. Like Nadar means soldier, kind of, and Kyan are the people the Nadar are sworn to protect. Aristh is the highest level you can reach in the military, and if you're an Aristh you're part of Princess Maya's War Council. Aristh Tom was one of the very original Aristh's."

Tobias took a deep breath. These people lived very different lives… and had a very different history. He had sort of assumed that they had just lived like humans did on Earth, but from what this girl was saying, that assumption was completely false.

The bell rang at that moment, and Tobias turned to see that Seth and Eric were groggily starting to get up. Panicking, he turned to run, but then at the last second, turned back.

"I'm sorry," he said. "But I have to go. I… can't miss class."

She nodded, seeming alarmed at the sound of the bell. "Yeah, I should go too."

Tobias hesitated for a moment, and then blurted out, "What's your name?"

"Nora," she responded, grinning again. "And yours?"

"Tobias," he said, smiling shyly. "Like… the Ani – the President."

"Tobias," she repeated. "I'll see you later, like the Earthlings say!"

Nora watched the boy disappear into the crowd of students, and then turned to see the two bullies sitting up, one of them holding his head in his hands. She fished into her bag and pulled out what looked like an ordinary white cloth, and then approached that one, pressing the cloth into his head. He flinched for a moment, and then when the pain began receding, stopped, and let her continue.

"Pain is gone now, right?" Nora asked the boy, who was nodding. She strode over to the other boy, dodging around students, and applied the same treatment. "The stuff inside this yahkbu soaks into your head and soothes your nerves," she explained.

Nora then bent down and looked him in the eye. "It's wrong to fight, you know. I'm sorry that I hit you guys so hard, I didn't mean to knock you out, just stop you from hurting the other boy, Tobias."

At the sound of his name, the boy leaped to his feet, and growled, "I'm going to kill him for this!"

Nora stamped her foot. Hadn't he been listening at all? The other boy was now coming over, pushing through the students, his face also full of anger. She faced the two of them, and decided that maybe they were the kind of bullies who listened better when they were scared of you.

"If you guys go after him again, I will have to kill you," she said mildly, knowing that they would be terrified. Earthlings were always more terrified, for some reason, when a death threat came from a non-Earthling. Sure enough, the boys looked at her, the one she had been fighting with for longer looking absolutely petrified.

"And don't think I won't be able to find out," she finished, and then put the yahkbu back into her bag before going along with the crowd to her next class. There. It was unlikely they would suspect that she had no special abilities for finding out their activities than any other Earthling, but, as Jordan-xen had told them, Earthlings always assume extraordinary powers to non-Earthlings, and then assume that they are naïve and inexperienced with life, at the same time. And Jordan-xen would know – she had a lot of experiences working both on and off Earth before she married Aristh Oscar.

Shaking her head at Earthlings and their habits, she strode off into her next class, slipping into her seat just before the bell rang, but jumping up again when it did. Scowling, she took her seat once more. She had been here since the beginning of the school year, and that ketya of a bell still had not stopped startling her.

--

"She was _amazing_, Jake," Tobias emphasized. "_Amazing_."

Jake smiled, happy to see his cousin thinking about something other than his fear. It had been a close one right after school, when his father had examined Tobias closely, looking for telltale signs of fighting, but he had been unable to find any. After he had left, Tobias had told Jake about Nora, and the eye patch, and the fighting, and everything else he had noticed about her.

It was one of the rare evenings the house was completely empty except for himself and Tobias. His father gone, probably at a bar, Loren was at a party, and Zach and Tyler were at a friend's house together.

Jake liked these evenings the best. Tobias usually cooked something, and then he ate with Jake at the table, both of them talking about their day. Usually it was Jake talking about his day, since Tobias didn't especially enjoy going over who had beaten him up that day. But today was different. Tobias was actually talking, and what more, he was talking a _lot._

"Hey, Tobias?" Jake asked suddenly. "Why does he hate you so much?"

Hoping that Tobias wouldn't fall silent and return to his quietness, Jake waited. It was a question that had bothered him for a long time, and today Tobias was actually talking, and excited, so maybe he would answer?

Tobias was quiet for a moment, but then he shrugged. "I don't know. Something about my father. They didn't get along, I guess."

Jake shook his head, annoyed at Tobias' passive acceptance, but then felt a flash of guilt. It wasn't exactly Tobias' fault that he was so passive.

"But he really hates you," Jake continued. "And there has to be something deeper to it."

His head down, Tobias shrugged again, obviously not wanting to talk about it. Jake bit his lip, a habit he had picked up from Tobias, and then dropped it, not wanting to ruin Tobias' good mood. Instead he asked, "Was she pretty?"

Tobias jerked up, giving Jake a strange glance. "Jake, you're seven… why would you care?"

Jake grinned. "I'm asking if _you _thought she was pretty, silly." When Tobias looked down, a small grin on his face, Jake couldn't help but thank Nora, for whatever she did. He had never seen Tobias like this before, and he could only help it would continue.

But deeper inside his thoughts, his mind turned to his first question. Why did his father hate Tobias so much? What had Tobias' father done? He _knew _if he could just figure it out, then something would change. The abuse would stop.

For you, Tobias, he said silently, as his cousin began speaking again, telling him that yes, Nora had been quite pretty. I'll figure it out, for you.

--

Loren looked up, and saw a guy glancing at her from across the room. Smiling, she put her drink down and decided to give it a shot. He was cute, it might be fun, who knew? She looked back at the boy, gazing at him, and then saw that he blushed and looked away. Aw, that was sweet! Not many guys would be like that. Maybe this guy would be worth more than just a fun night.

She stepped across the room littered with empty cups and trash, and closed in on the boy, making sure her walk was as seductive as she could make it. Smiling, she slipped in next to him.

"Hey, there," she said, her trademark smirk on her face. "Saw you looking at me."

The boy looked up at her and grinned. "My name is John. What's yours?"

"Loren," she purred, but then his eyes widened. "Loren? Like the President's mother?"

What? The President's mother… well, she didn't know what the President's mother's name was. But what a _random_ thing to say. And he didn't even seem that nervous anymore.

Slightly disappointed, but determined to keep going, Loren smiled and nodded. "Yes, that's exactly right."

The boy – John, right? – nodded, and then sat down on the couch, gesturing her over. She sat down next to him and then leaned forward, just enough for him to get a good look at her.

But he didn't seem interested. "Let's get to know each other," he suggested, and Loren's eyebrows shot up. What? What was this guy, some kind of social idiot? Who started conversations like that, anyway?

I'll try just a little longer, but if he keeps being weird, I'm going to go find some other guy.

"Well, I go to the same high school that the Animorphs went to," she started. Loren always liked to start with that tidbit of information – it always fascinated them.

But John was just nodding. "Yeah, I know, that's actually why my sister and I decided to do our exchange program at your school."

Exchange program? But the guy spoke perfect English… didn't even have an accent…

"Exchange program from _where_?" Loren asked, forgetting to make it sultry. So this guy went to her high school, apparently, or had been at least for this year.

"Mayaneria," John answered. Loren looked at him. "Where's that?"

"It's a country, well, really the only country, on Somolonania. I don't think the Vampire Spiders really count, they're probably all dead anyway by now."

What the hell? Somolonania? Vampire Spiders? Was this guy from a different planet?

Dimly from the back of her head she remembered there had been a school announcement about how two students from the Nadar planet were going to be visiting the school for a year in an exchange program. Was this the guy, then?

"Oh, so you're from outer space?" she asked, and John smiled a little, annoying her. What was so funny?

"Yeah, I guess you could say that. I tend to view myself as a Mayanite though, from Somolonania, but from an Earthling's point of view I guess that _is _outer space."

"Earthling?" Loren blurted out again. "You call us Earthlings?"

Well, it's kind of cute. I guess.

John nodded. "Yeah, we do. Well, we call the humans on Earth, Earthlings, and then we call Earth immigrants, Earthers, and then I'm one of the Former Controllers, the ones who escaped with Princess Maya from the Blade Ship, and my sister is one of the Vampire Spider Children. They were enslaved to the Vampire Spiders and after we freed them we had to fight with the Vampire Spiders pretty much constantly for two years. But we defeated them, in the end."

This boy was sounding more and more interesting. So, maybe he was a bit socially inept, just a bit of a dork, but he had been through a lot of neat sounding stuff, even though she wasn't sure what all of it meant.

"What are Vampire Spiders like?" she asked, guessing from the name that they were somewhat spidery. Still, she wanted to hear how John would describe them – maybe he had fought off a few?

"Oh, I don't really remember," he said, dashing her hopes. "I was six when the war ended. They sucked out your blood and killed you by eating you, I remember that. My sister is still really scared of them, though, she was born as a slave to them until we freed her."

"Wait, how are you guys sister and brother? It sounds like you met each other after you were born," Loren asked critically. Was it some weird alien thing that they did to become siblings?

"Oh, yeah, we're adoptive," he answered, and Loren nodded, responding, "Oh." She opened her mouth to ask another question, when she felt someone's hand on her arm, gripping it tightly. She looked up to see Greg, a more than slightly inebriated senior.

"Hey, Loren," he said, slurring his words. "C'mon, let's go upstairs."

She yanked her arm away from him, but he wouldn't let go. "Let go of me, Greg," she hissed, but the boy refused.

"Loren, c'mon, you don't say no to anyone. Let's go."

"What's upstairs?" John asked, and Loren looked at him. Did he really not understand what was going on?

Greg yanked on her arm one more time, and this time she managed to pull her arm out of his grasp, his fingers leaving red marks on her skin. Annoyed, she turned and pulled away from Greg who was trying to grab her arm again, when suddenly, out of the corner of her eye saw Greg stumble backwards.

Looking up, she saw John, who had just stood up and shoved Greg.

"Leave her alone," he said quietly. Greg stood quietly for a moment, and then laughed. "Who are _you?_"

"My name is John," Loren heard him reply, his voice still steadfast. "And I think you mean harm to Loren. She doesn't want you to touch her, so you won't."

Greg laughed, even more loudly, and Loren, winced, knowing what he was going to say. "What, are you like trying to defend her _honor_ or something? That slut has no honor – she doesn't say no to anyone. You should help me instead of helping her, all I want is some fun."

She looked up to see a confused look on John's face. "One moment," he said. "Let me access my dictionary." Loren saw him look at his wrist, where there was what looked like a flexible plastic bracelet on it, a few inches thick, with a screen on it. "Computer, define slut," he intoned, and then she saw his eyes widen as he read the definition.

He's going to think of me like everyone thinks of me, she thought, and for the first time, the thought struck her as something bad. Normally she didn't care what people said, she did want she wanted and had fun. But for some reason, John with his obvious innocence… she didn't want him to know.

"Take it back," John said, his voice rough. "Or I will hurt you."

"What are you going to do, define me?" Greg threw back mockingly, his voice rising.

John was silent for a moment, and then all of a sudden his body exploded, and Loren screamed. No, wait, he's not dead, he's just growing bigger, and now he has fur on him, and he… he…

He's _morphing. _Like the Animorphs!

A few moments later and a grizzly bear stood in front of a petrified Greg, and next to an equally terrified Loren.

The entire room was silent.

(Take it back.)

"Sssorry, Llloren," Greg managed, his eyes wide with fright. John, now a bear, turned and offered one paw to Loren.

(Let's go.)

Still in shock, she numbly took his paw and then they left the party, John ducking his bear head to get through the door.

(One moment, let me demorph,) John said when they were a few blocks away from the party. She watched as the skin sucked in, and then as his body shrunk until he was the same John she had seen across the room, except instead of his clothes he was wearing a skintight uniform that she actually thought looked kind of good on him.

"Sorry, I forgot about the fact that my clothes would rip," he said, looking at himself. "I always wear this anyway, just habit, but, oh, man, Nora is going to be so mad at me now. She always says I just act without thinking, but I mean, that word is bad, right? That's what the dictionary said. It said that human males sometimes would kill each other if one of them used that word, but I thought that it would be a bad idea to kill him, so I thought maybe I should just scare him a little? I wasn't sure what the right thing to do was so I just picked morphing. Did I do the right thing?"

Suddenly, Loren laughed, the tension released from her body. "No, you… wow, you were incredible. I mean, no guy has ever reacted like that before, no guy has ever bothered to... defend me."

John looked surprised. "That's strange. I thought that Earthlings would react. But I don't know much about Earth, I'm afraid. It's kind of embarrassing, actually, since I was born on Earth and everything, but I really am quite ignorant about this planet. Another one of the reasons I wanted to come here."

The boy stopped for a moment, and then said suddenly, "Can I walk you home?" Startled, Loren turned to look at him, and then smiled. "Did your read that in your dictionary?" she teased, but John shook his head. "No, one of my Earthling friends told me that. You are supposed to walk pretty girls home."

Loren smiled again, surprised again. He was kind of… blunt. Was this a whatever-planet-he-was-from thing, or what?

"Oh, uh, thanks," she said. "Yeah, that would be nice."

"Should I give you my arm?"

"Oh, no," Loren answered. "We don't do that kind of thing anymore. That was a long time ago."

John nodded. "It must be very hard to keep up with all these changing customs. I have so much trouble keeping track of how you are supposed to treat people. It's very different in Mayaneria."

They started walking, and Loren asked curiously, "How do you do it in Mayaneria?"

"Well," John started, "We bow a lot more. And if you're greeting a recently immigrated non-human, you have to greet them according to their customs. But if you are close, you touch foreheads – to humans, that is, and you touch whatever equivalent non-humans have to foreheads when you're greeting them."

As John continued speaking, Loren began relaxing, starting to enjoy the night air and her company. John… okay, she would admit, he was kind of weird, but… he had stood up for her, and no one had ever done that before.

I'm going to keep him, she decided. He's worth it.

--

"Nora! Nora!"

"Give a nyasha some time," she responded. "Or as the Earthlings say, one second. I'm doing something."

"You've been saying that a lot," John said back, flinging himself into a chair next to her. "As the Earthlings say, blah blah blah. As the Earthlings say, more blah blah blah."

"What do you want, dear brother?" she asked, her eyes on the screen in front of her. "I'm currently fixing this computer's bugs and viruses, but I'm almost done. You wouldn't believe how many it has. Earthling computers are _bad._"

"Nora, I met this girl," John started, and then Nora smiled. "Does this girl have something to do with the fact that your Earthling clothes are missing?"

Out of the corner of her eye John looked down. "Oh, yeah."

"_John_," she remonstrated. "So, tell me what crazy impulsive thing you did this time."

"It kind of just happened really quickly, I mean, I just thought _bear _and then I was one and - "

"What?" she said, turning around in the middle of fixing the code in front of her. "Please, tell me one more time?"

John couldn't hide her grin from her as he launched into the recent events, wrapping it up with wondering why he went to the party in the first place. "I mean, I guess I went because Jason invited me, but still, it's not like our parties. They dance kind of weird, no steps or anything, and it's strange music, and the drinks they have taste _nasty_. Nothing like our good old Somohol."

Nora shrugged. "Well, it is Earth. Earth is strange. I'm glad you went though, if only to help that girl Loren out. It seems strange that she was so grateful for your help. Why didn't she just stand up for herself?"

"I don't know," her brother replied. "I guess it's just the Earthling way."

"I met this boy, too, actually," Nora said. "And he didn't stand up for himself at all. Actually, he got hurt rather badly before I stepped in because I thought he was waiting and getting hurt on purpose, to catch the two bullies off guard. I was a maya today for him, actually. Oh, and it was funny! He was a tobias, and his name actually is Tobias."

John chuckled, and then got up from the chair. "All these Animorph names, but the Earthlings here know nothing about the Animorphs. Or at least they know nothing about Maya. I mean, I look around and I feel like all the children are named Jake, Tobias, Cassie, Maya, Rachel or Marco, and some are even named Ax, but when I talk to them about what the Animorphs are doing now, they have no idea."

"It's kind of funny, isn't it?" Nora asked her brother, thinking. "The Animorphs fought and bled for Earth, but only Prince Jake and Animorph Cassie actually live here. Animorph Marco is in charge of a lot of tactical stuff on Somolonania, and President Tobias is, well, president of Mayaneria, and well, Animorph Rachel is dead, and Princess Maya obviously and Prince Aximili is with the Andalites…"

"I guess they weren't really Earthlings after they were done with the war," John responded, sounding serious. "Maybe they changed too much."

Nora gave him a glance. "And what about us? What are we?"

John grinned again, suddenly reverting back to his usual self, but his words were serious. "Us? We're brother and sister, you nyasha, what do you think?"

She smiled and gave him a shove that sent him sprawling, and laughing, he came back, tickling her, both of them laughing together. Brother and sister.

"You mean forever?" Nora asked suddenly, echoing the question she had asked John when they had first met, fifteen years ago. She remembered that moment so clearly, that dark night when John, just a four-year-old then, had come up to her and said, "I don't have a mom or dad and you don't either. Let's be brother and sister."

She was eighteen now, and John nineteen, but she knew what his response would be.

"Of course," he said, the words lovingly familiar, as he reached out to hold her head in his hands. "Brother and sister forever."

Nora also put her hands on his head, and they touched foreheads, holding each other closely, their eyes closed. "Brother-of-my-heart," she whispered, starting the Mayanite siblings vows. "I will never leave you."

"Sister-of-my-heart," her brother responded softly. "We go together forever."


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

_Dear Diary,_

_It wasn't my fault, really. I mean, there was nothing I could do. It just happened so fast. And like, I'm 14. I shouldn't have to deal with stuff like this._

_Dad's friends were over, and Tobias was serving them food and stuff. They were laughing loudly and drinking beers and one of them started talking about how there were no women there, and then Dad said, "Well, there's always Loren," and they laughed even more._

_I was in my room upstairs and I could still hear them and so I went to the bathroom and locked the door that connected the bathroom to my room, and then locked the door that Tyler and Zach used to get into the bathroom. Zach and Tyler were gone so they didn't care, and I was as quiet as a mouse, pretending not to be there._

_But then I heard a man in my room, and I looked through the crack and I saw that he was pulling Tobias in the room with him. I recognized the man – he 's one of Dad's close friends and I can always tell its him because he wears these big rings on all of his fingers on both hands._

_He made Tobias take off his shirt, and then he hit him once, across the stomach and then again on his left cheek. The rings scratched Tobias pretty bad. There was blood all over my floor._

_He pulled Tobias into the bed and then I stopped looking. I felt really bad for Tobias, but what was I supposed to do? Go out there? Dad had already told them they could have me, so I had to hide._

_Sometimes I think Dad hates me as much as he hates Tobias. But I'm his daughter! Tobias is just our cousin. Shouldn't he hate Tobias more?_

_Love, Loren_

"It's snowing!" Nora called out, running back to their bed from the window. "Snow! Snow! Snow! Come on, John, let's go outside!"

John moaned. "Coming," he called, lifted his head, and then put it back into the bed. Nora pursed her lips, shaking her head at her lazy brother and then proceeded to bounce on the bed. When that failed to shift him, she went back to the window, opened it, grabbed a handful of snow that had collected on the sill and then promptly ground it into his face.

Instantly John sat up, spitting and shaking away the snow. "Wait…" he started. "It's snowing?"

"_Yes, _John," Nora answered him, tugging on his sleeve. "C'mon, let's go. I made breakfast already, let's go outside and play!"

"Nora," John started. "Don't we have to go to school?"

"It's Saturday, Oh Intelligent One."

"Hey, don't make fun of me!"

Nora pulled on her brother's sleeve again. "You can morph something that goes well with snow, and then we'll play. Morph like a polar bear or something cool."

John snorted. "The only thing I know how to do with a polar bear morph is fight."

Nora shook her head. "C'mon, in a polar bear morph you can get really big and push snow around more easily. And I can take pictures of you next to big snow piles and we'll pretend we're in Earth's arctic regions."

John could feel a slow grin coming over his face. "Alright, Nora, you win. Let me get changed first."

The two of them gulped down breakfast, and then headed out of their apartment down to the bottom of their complex. The snow was coming down quickly, almost furiously, and delighted, Nora lifted up her hands to touch it.

"Winter is longer on Earth," she remarked, and John nodded. "So we'll get tired of it after a while."

Nora laughed. "How could we ever get tired of this? It's beautiful!"

The two trekked down the sidewalk, the snow already a few inches thick. Nora looked around at the white clouds all around them, and then dimly made out parked cars in the parking lot below their apartment.

She pointed them out to John. "Aw, John, look. Earthlings don't have instant heat generators, do they? Their cars will be covered in the snow."

"We could clean them off," John suggested his tongue out catching flakes. "Instead of me morphing to a polar bear."

"Or you could morph to a polar bear, and _then_ clean them off," Nora said, laughing. "Although you're more likely to break a window in that morph."

"True," John admitted, his tongue still out. "We can use our hands, I guess. I mean, they have to be good for something."

Nora rolled her eyes at him, and then began energetically cleaning the snow off the windshield of the nearest car. Brushing the snow off the hood onto the road, she could feel the cold coming through her coat.

"Man, I don't know how Earthlings survive this," she remarked to John, who was busy wiping the snow off of the side windows. "I want to turn on my heat shield already."

"Don't," said John. "Let's see how long we can last without it. I mean, Earthlings survive it, we should be able to as well, right?"

"Yeah, I guess," Nora responded, attacking the next car, but looking wistfully at the bracelet around her wrist that she could activate to put up a force field that was completely molded to her body, around her. It would emanate heat and warm her up, and then she could perhaps even melt the stubborn bits of snow off of the cars…

If Earthlings can do it, so can I, she thought firmly, and then broke off the icicles hanging from the car's bumper. John was next to her, clearing the snow off of the hood. If it's possible, Nora reminded herself, brushing the snow off the windows, it can be done.

--

"Snow?" Tobias said aloud, hardly believing his eyes. "Since when does it snow around here? And since when does it snow this much?"

Looking through the bills he had in his hand, he gave a slight shudder. His uncle was very strict with the budget, and refused to give Tobias any more money to pay for the house than he thought was necessary. Since Tobias couldn't control how long his cousins showered, or when they wanted the air condition up, he often had to scramble to make sure the bills were completely paid.

It was a little easier now that his uncle gave allowance to his kids – they used the money to buy clothes and since Jake never used all his money, he gave it to Tobias to help pay for the bills. But still, sometimes Tobias had to search grocery store after store looking for the cheapest prices, using coupons, sometimes even stealing food to make sure that the family would have enough. He had recently discovered the wonders of dumpster diving, and would bring home day-old bread bakeries would throw out, still unopened. His uncle had yet to notice, and Tobias was happy to keep it that way.

But with snow, Tobias knew the heating bill would rise, and there was no way he could pay for that with his current budget.

He gritted his teeth. He hated asking his uncle for money. Usually it involved his uncle throwing a fit, demanding to see all of Tobias' carefully stored receipts and then flipping through them to find a single purchase he deemed unnecessary, and then beating Tobias for it.

But that was better than not paying the bill, and then having the lights or the heat cut off. The one time that had happened his uncle had hovered around Tobias in the kitchen, keeping him from eating anything but a stolen mouthful a day for an entire week, and then there was that beating at the end of the week. Tobias was not interested in repeating that episode.

Staring at the snow glumly, cursing it silently for existing, he dragged his way to his uncle, who was watching TV.

"Um… sorry for interrupting, but…"

His voice trailed off as his uncle turned to glare at him.

"I think that with the snow, the heat bill is going to go up, and so we might need some more money to pay for it…"

"More money," his uncle stated slowly, as if relishing each word. "More _money_. As if I don't provide for you, give you a place to stay. You come asking for _more money_."

Tobias closed his eyes, trying not to protest at the ridiculous unfairness of the situation. But then again, his uncle had never really cared about being fair when it came to Tobias.

"Are you listening to me?!" his uncle shouted, causing Tobias' eyes to fly open. Uh, oh…

His uncle was standing, his face furious, and Tobias was glad for a moment that the couch was in between them when his uncle reached out and grabbed him by his throat, starting to squeeze.

"I did this to your mother, you know," he hissed, and disconcerted, Tobias almost forgot that he couldn't breathe. His uncle had never spoken about his mother before, ever.

But a minute passed and then Tobias started to see dark spots dancing before his eyes. He reached up to feebly try and pull his uncle's hand away from his throat, and then found himself flying backwards, his head hitting their dining table.

Stunned, he lay there for a moment, when his uncle reached over, picked him up, and then shoved the right side of face into the tabletop, once, twice, three times, over and over until that side of his face was a bloody mess.

"You'll get two hundred extra dollars for this month," his uncle said, finally releasing him. Tobias nodded and when his uncle went back to the couch, gingerly reached up to touch his face. He heard a sound and then looked up to see Jake at the top of the stairs, looking with sad eyes at Tobias.

Tobias pulled his hand away from his face and looked down. He hated it whenever Jake saw his uncle hurt him, hated it because he knew that Jake pitied him for it, and there was something wrong about pity coming from a boy he had practically raised. Stopping his tears before they even reached his eyes, Tobias strode over to the kitchen to wash his face, trying not to wince as he wiped off the blood.

The door opened and Tobias could hear Loren call goodbye to the friend who had dropped her off. Quickly wiping his face, he came out and asked her, "Ready to go shopping?"

She looked him up and down, and then stared at his face. "What happened to your face?"

His uncle laughed at that, and then Loren looked away. "Oh."

More pity. Tobias clenched his fists, and then asked Loren again, more quietly, if she was ready. She nodded, still not looking at Tobias, and the two of them quietly gathered their things.

This was the only time Loren ever spent any time in Tobias' company willingly. Every other month, Loren and Tobias went to local malls, bought clothes, and shoplifted as many clothes as they could. They worked as a team, sometimes wearing the clothing, other times sneaking it out in bags from other stores. Loren would often try on clothes, and then pass them to Tobias, who would put them in his bags and carry them out while she stayed behind and bought his clothes, and vice versa.

They never entered the store at the same time, and never acted as if they knew each other, but they had been doing this for such a long time it sometimes felt to Tobias that it was an old dance that they had danced together for many years, and that they didn't need to speak during the dance to be able to perform. Tobias had no idea how Loren thought of their arrangement, but he knew that at the very least she found it convenient and useful enough to keep doing it.

Tobias pulled on his wind breaker that he had stolen a year ago, and then pulled open the door, bracing himself for the snow. Loren was wearing a similar jacket, and as she came out she said, "We really need to get something better to wear during the wintertime. Zach and Tyler get team jackets, and Jake can always wear our hand-me-downs but you and I – we always get the brunt of the cold."

Tobias nodded. "Jake needs new clothes this year, though. He's getting teased at his school for always wearing clothes that are too big for him. He's much younger and smaller than Tyler, and Tyler's old clothes are too worn for him as well."

Loren gave him a sideways glance. "You want to get Jake new clothes because _he_gets teased? Why don't you get yourself new clothes?"

He glanced quickly back at the house, and then shrugged. "I don't really care what people think of me at school. And _he_'ll get mad at me if I wear nice clothes."

Tobias only ever had a pair of jeans and a t-shirt that he wore constantly, in and out of season. He got a new set whenever they began falling apart or became too small for him to fit into, no matter how hard he tried. He had just gotten a new uniform, as he called it, last year, so this year he could perhaps try to sneak out a jacket, since it was obvious that this year's winter was going to be a cold one.

He looked down at his shoes, noticing how the sole was coming off every time he lifted his feet, and the pinch in his toes. New shoes, then, as well. Those were trickier – he had to go to a larger shoe store for those since it was too easy to be caught in the smaller ones.

"Do you need new shoes?" he asked Loren, and she shook her head. "My last boyfriend bought me a whole bunch, so I'm good for now." She sighed then. "It's so much easier to get clothes when I'm dating someone. I just get him to pay for everything, and then I have money leftover to save for long term stuff, like a winter coat. I don't think I'll ever have enough money to buy a good one though."

Tobias didn't respond, knowing that he would never be able to afford one either. Loren had a better chance at it than him – she was careful with her money, and only ever bought her own clothes with it. Tobias mostly used Jake's allowance money whenever he went shopping, or sometimes if he was very very thrifty he would have leftover cash after paying the bills. The two of them shopped together, yes, but it was still a very clear line of who bought what, and whose money was used.

She was, however, generous when it came to who to blame if they were caught. Loren almost always took the blame – it was a point of pride when she was able to flirt herself out of a situation. Tobias was also aware that she knew the consequences would be much greater if Tobias took the blame, and so he was grateful that she always took the rap whenever they were caught, which wasn't that often.

They boarded the local bus in silence, each paying for their own fare, and then when the bus let out in front of the mall, Tobias paused outside the doors to tie his shoe, letting Loren slip in ahead of him. Straightening up, he followed after a few moments, keeping her in the corner of his eye but showing no sign that he even recognized her.

Shoes first, Tobias decided. He coughed loudly, and then heard Loren's cough in response. She knew that he was going to do something on his own first and that he would catch up with her later. First, however, he had to figure out where she was going to be.

Striding forward, Tobias caught up with Loren who was looking at a map of the store. Pretending to ignore him, she tapped her finger on the mall's Forever 21, and then left without a backwards glance. Tobias looked at the map, memorizing where the store was, and then headed over to the Payless that was just a few doorways away from the entrance.

He slipped in with a family, trying not to seem suspicious. The family was large and chattering loudly together, and he stuck close to them, hoping that the store clerk would write him off as part of the group. When they headed to the back of the store, Tobias left them and headed over to where the shoes were his own size, and pulled out a pair of sneakers that looked as if they would work.

Putting them on as if he were just trying them, he walked back and forth several paces before deciding they would probably last him for the next few years. He lifted his old shoes and carefully put them in the store shoebox, before looking down at the clearance shelf, where he could sometimes find shoes for less than five bucks.

There. He pulled out a pair of child sandals from the bottom rack, and then smiled. This was almost too perfect – they looked like they were just Jake's size. Perfect for the next summer.

Making his way to the front of the store, he placed the shoebox with the sandals in them on the counter, avoiding eye contact with the clerk by appearing bored. I'm just here, buying these sandals for my little brother because he wants a Christmas present and I thought it'd be funny to get him these. That's all. I'm just a normal older brother who likes to pay jokes on his younger brother.

The transaction went as it normally did, Tobias handing over his money and the clerk giving him back his change. Tobias nodded to the clerk before taking the plastic bag and walking off, when a voice called to him, "Hey, aren't those new shoes you're wearing?"

Tobias stopped, knowing the worst thing he could do was run, and turned. "Yeah, I just got them yesterday," he answered with another nod, hoping to brush off any more questions.

"No, you didn't," the clerk answered, his voice scornful. "I put those shoes on the shelf myself, just an hour ago. I remember them – they have those crazy designs, with the purple and orange lines running together. I specifically remember those shoes. Worst color combination ever, first time I ever saw anything like that, and I've been selling shoes for the past twenty years."

The suspicion in the clerk's voice was hard and set and Tobias knew there was no way he was going to be able to talk himself out of this one. A fleeting second to decide, and then Tobias bolted.

He could hear the clerk yelling from behind him, and then the yelling stopped abruptly – probably was calling security. Cursing, Tobias dashed past the fountain in the middle of the mall, desperately trying to find an exit. Maybe he could go into another store and hide in the dressing room or something… or maybe take these shoes off and hide them somewhere, and come back for them. Yes, that might work, only it might be a little _obvious_ when he started walking around the mall barefoot.

"Tobias, why are you running?"

Tobias spun to a stop, and then saw Nora staring at him. Looking over his shoulder to see security almost there, he choked out, "Nora, help me, please. I…"

She looked at him, and then looked at the guards. "What did you steal?"

Grateful that she had been able to figure it out, he pointed at his shoes. Nora looked at them, and then ordered, 'Take them off."

Tobias pulled them off quickly, and then handed them to Nora, who picked them up, and then marched over to the security guards.

Should he follow her, or not? Tobias looked at the guards, and then at the mall exit, which was so close at hand… he might get away from the guards even barefoot, and then he would be out of this mess.

Don't be an idiot, he scolded himself. You going to run out in the snow barefoot? Trust Nora. She's protected you before, she'll do it again.

Steeling himself, Tobias turned and painfully forced himself to walk towards the guards, towards what could be possibly the worst thing that he had ever been caught at. Nora, please know what you're doing, he begged her, as he approached the guards whom Nora was speaking to energetically.

Step after step, and his breathing became heavier. What was he doing? This was the first time in his life he had stepped up to consequences instead of just running and trying to get away with whatever he could. What was he thinking?

Trust Nora, he told himself again, closing his eyes. Trust Nora, he said again, opening them and striding forward, towards the guards.

--

"Sorry about my brother," Nora told the Earthling security guards who were looking at her and Tobias suspiciously. "He sometimes has issues about payment and stuff like that, he's not completely normal. Where did he get these from? I'll pay for them."

She expected Tobias was behind her, not acting normal. After all, this was a common Earthling thing, right? She and John had just watched a movie yesterday, called Aladdin, and in it this girl had stolen an apple, and Aladdin had called her his sister and she wasn't completely normal and they had gotten away. They hadn't paid for the apple in the movie though, and Nora thought that she should, so she altered it a little bit. Hopefully the Earthlings wouldn't think that her adaptations on their culture were too strange.

The guards looked at her a little bit funnily, and she smiled in what she hoped was a charming and disarming way. One of them frowned though and asked, "What are you kids cooking, huh? What is this really about?"

Cooking? Nora felt a flutter of alarm. It had to be a strange Earthling saying, but she didn't know what it meant. Maybe she should just deny it and stick with her story.

"We aren't cooking anything," she replied, hoping her voice was steady. "We're just shopping. Can I go pay for these now?"

Nora turned and gestured Tobias forward. The poor boy looked terrified. "C'mon, let's go. We have to pay for these."

She reached for Tobias' hand, and then pulled him through the group of security guards. Man, did they have nothing else to do? How often did people steal from this place, anyway? The shoes Tobias had taken looked like junk. Then again, almost all of Earthling clothes looked like trash when compared to the beautiful designs that the Mayanites wore. Nora loved preparing her and John's outfits out for the week and had often taken commissions from other people who liked her sense of style.

She mentioned this to Tobias as they walked back to the shoe store, and then quickly added, "I mean, I don't want to offend you or anything…"

Tobias shook his head. "No offense taken. I really don't think much of Earth anyway, and as you can tell, I don't really dress that well."

Nora glanced at him, and then shrugged. "You dress like all other Earthlings, as far as I can tell."

Tobias gave a short laugh, and Nora looked at him. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing," he replied, shaking his head again. "It's just that… Loren would be so mad if she heard you say that she and I dressed alike."

"Loren?" Nora asked, the name sounding familiar. Where had she heard the name Loren before… oh, yes, from her brother John, with that party he had gone to a few months ago. "Wait, how do you know Loren?"

"She's my cousin," he responded. They had reached the shoe store, and Nora leaned over the counter, giving the same excuse she had given the security guards. The clerk looked skeptical – but then that was the way Earthlings did it, right? The guy selling the apples in the movie had looked that way too.

"Anyway," Nora continued, taking away the plastic bag of shoes. "She's your cousin, huh? I didn't know that."

Tobias shrugged. "Not many people do. She doesn't like being associated with me."

"Why?"

He shrugged again.

"And why did you steal these shoes?"

Tobias looked down at the ground.

Nora pursed her lips, and then stopped. "Tobias, look, I just did you a favor. And I'm not sure how Earthlings do it, but in Somolonania, favors are really strictly regulated. You can even sell them on the market, as a service. You exchange favors like you would money, and when someone does you a favor you keep track of it so you can return it. It's a sign of great closeness when you and another person does favors for each other without keeping track of them, and frankly, you and I are not at that stage."

She watched closely as the boy nodded, his eyes still on his bare feet, silent.

"I don't have much money," he finally responded, and Nora turned her head, looking at him. His tone was true, and his awkwardness was honest, that was easy to tell. But there was something about his posture that made her sure that he was hiding something. He was telling the truth, but not the whole truth.

Well, she wouldn't force it out of him. But she wouldn't count that as a favor returned.

"Alright, so you don't want to tell me everything," Nora responded. "I don't know why, but I'll let you off the hook. But you still owe me a favor, okay?"

"But I'm not a Mayanite," Tobias said, his tone almost plaintive, still refusing to look up. "Do I have to?"

Nora's smile broke into a laugh. "You're right, I didn't realize that. So what do Earthlings do when they do each other favors?"

Tobias shrugged. "Well, I guess it's similar, but it's not as strict. If I don't do you a favor in return, you just think I'm rude, and then forget about me. But… we do say thank you. So… thanks. You saved me from a lot of trouble… more than you would know."

Did Earthlings kill thieves or something then? What was going on?

"Was it really that much trouble?" asked Nora, mildly surprised. "I mean, on Mayaneria they would send you to jail – not Earthling jail," she added hastily, at the look on Tobias' face. "Mayanite jail. It's like… detention, I guess. You go there and then have to talk to this computer about how you're feeling and why and why you did what you did and it's reaaalllly boring. John and I got sent there all the time when we were younger, whenever we fought. People would analyze what we told the computer, and then decide whether there was a serious issue or not. I think they just laughed at my transcripts though, I was really annoying to the computer."

Nora grinned at the memory. Jailtime stories were a favorite of the older teens, the ones about to end their formal schooling. Hers were good, but John's were even better – her brother was a wild one, always getting into trouble. He still got sent to jail sometimes, but then again, he was a boy, and among the older teens there were always more boys still being sent to jail than there were girls. Our maturity levels are different, she had explained to John, but he had just laughed and insisted that jailtime was worth whatever he ended up doing.

"But if you lied to the computer, then they wouldn't know if there was a serious problem or not, right?" Tobias asked, jerking Nora away from Somolonania. She turned to him. "Huh? I mean, yeah, but why would you lie? I didn't have anything to hide, I was just fighting with John and fights were a normal reason to get sent to jail. I mean, some people would lie, I guess but there are detectors in jail to tell when you're lying or not."

Nora paused, and then carefully picked her story and her words to see how Tobias would react. "I remember one time there was a girl in my class whose mother kept yelling at her and telling her she was worthless and constantly calling her names, and she didn't tell anyone."

Tobias' breathing had gotten faster.

"But then one time she got sent to jail, I don't even remember why, and the computer could tell she was hurt, and so it followed that trail instead. Computers are smart like that. And the people analyzing her transcript – we call them Jailtime Analyzers, really creative, I know – found out something was wrong, and so talked to the girl about it, by herself, and she told them everything. Her mother got deported from Mayaneria. It was a really big deal, but the girl is a lot happier now."

In fact, Johanna was one of the sweetest girls she knew, and one of her closer friends. She had actually woken Nora up to the fact that Nora had been oblivious to her pain, even though they had been close friends even at that age, when Nora had been around thirteen. After that, Nora always made sure to notice whenever someone was in pain, and had gotten very good at picking up on stuff without having to ask anything. She would never let a friend of hers go through what Johanna did, ever again.

And she knew something was up with Tobias. Tobias was _cooking_ something. And she intended on finding out what was going on.

Tobias was still studiously avoiding eye contact, and he had pulled up his hand to touch one of his scars on his face. Nora slowly reached out and touched his cheek as well, and he jumped, pulling away, his eyes wide as he stared at her.

"Where did you get those, Tobias?" she asked, her voice quiet.

"I have to go," he responded, turning away. "I… my cousin is expecting me. Loren."

"Don't forget your shoes," Nora responded, her voice still quiet. She held out the plastic bag, and with fingers that noticeably trembled, he took it, and then looked down at the ground again.

"Thanks, Nora," he whispered, almost too softly for the girl to hear, before turning and leaving, still walking with bare feet across the mall.

Sighing, Nora shouldered her bag. Where had her brother gone? Probably a bookstore, somewhere. She turned and then almost ran into a guy about her age, maybe a year younger, who was smirking at her.

"That guy you were talking to just now," the boy started slowly. "He your friend?"

Friend? Well, that word was a vague Earthling word that Nora often felt could mean anyone you talked to for a few moments in the hallways of school. I guess Tobias is my friend, in Earthlings terms.

"Yeah, we're friends," she agreed, and then looked at the guy. "Why do you ask?"

The boy stepped back, shaking his head. "No reason, really. Just curious."

Nora glanced at him, and then shrugging, pushed past him. Earthlings.

--

"I think something is wrong in Tobias' life," Nora began. John looked up from the game he had been playing on their computer. "Tobias? Who is Tobias?"

"_John,_" she stressed. "He's the boy I told you about, remember? The Tobias who is also a tobias?"

"Oh, right, him. What about him?"

"Stop playing that game for a moment and listen to me, will you?"

"I can't help it," John protested. "This game is so archaic, I have no idea how people actually enjoy it. I've been analyzing it for what it might say about the social habits of Earthlings, or what it might say about Earthling's social values."

Nora stopped to look over her brother's shoulder at the game, and cried out, "It's all 2D!"

"Yeah," John responded. "It's called World of Warcrack or something like that. Apparently it's pretty popular. But I feel like it'd be so much better the way we play it, you know?"

Nora instantly agreed. Entering into a 3D world where you had to fight off opponents using your own hands, but having it be just as mystical as any computer world was the way Mayanites did it, and it was without a doubt better than this flat screened computer.

"But anyway, sorry, what were you saying about Tobias?" asked John, pulling himself away from the computer. Nora shook her head as if to get her head out of the game, and then turned to her brother.

"Something is wrong with his life."

"Care to be more specific?" suggested John casually, and annoyed, Nora glared at him. This was serious!

"What?" John responded. "What did I do wrong?"

"Care to be more_specific_?" Nora threw back, for the moment forgetting about Tobias. "Don't condescend to me like that. I was about to get to it when you interrupted."

John lifted his hands, palms up, in an obvious show of exasperation. "I wasn't being condescending, Nora. Why do you have to be so touchy about everything?"

Still glaring, Nora snapped, "Fine, then, fine. You go be perfect and patient by yourself. I'm going to my room."

"_My_ room too," John corrected vehemently and Nora whirled around, trying to kill him with her eyes. Why did he always have to say she was wrong, no matter what she did? What was _wrong_ with him?

John looked back at his sister, still not quite sure what had just happened or why she was mad at him. It was probably just Nora being prickly all the time, taking his words the wrong way. But she _knew _that it annoyed him when she always said stuff like "my room" and "Alexa's my friend" and stuff like that, so why did she do it?

He returned her death stare, and then turned to the best weapon in his arsenal – words. "You know, I think it's kind of ironic that you're trying to be all nice to this Tobias and help him, when you won't even say a kind word to me."

Nora's eyes almost came out of her head, she looked so upset. If there was one thing that Nora hated, it was hypocrisy. Hypocrisy and double standards, and accusing Nora of being a hypocrite was a definite way to get her angry.

"Not _fair,_" she said, her voice hurt. "You always use words to hurt me and I can't think of anything back to say that will hurt you just as much. You have a gift for words, why don't you use it to say nice things instead of searching for the best way to hurt?"

Instantly John felt a rush of shame, and he dropped his eyes to the ground. Nora claimed she couldn't use words but she often said exactly what would make John stop being angry and start being ashamed, even without trying to.

"I'm sorry, Nora," he responded earnestly. "I don't really do that all the time though, do I?"

The nice thing about Nora was that if you said sorry, and meant it, she instantly forgave you. Coming towards John with open arms, she hugged her brother around his head. "No, I'm sorry too, I shouldn't have said that."

The two paused for a moment, and then John asked from underneath Nora's arms, "What were we fighting about again?"

Nora laughed, pulling away, and then stopped, thinking. After a moment she started giggling again. "I don't remember…"

John returned her laughter, and then put his hand on Nora's. "Tell you what. I'll call Tobias for you, okay? I'll ask him if he wants to hang out or something. I think in Earthling culture if you call him then it would be considered a date or something like that, so I'll do it."

Nora went back to hug her brother. "Thanks, John. I know you don't really like to bother to call people to hang out, so... I'll consider this a favor that I'll actually return."

"Nah," John returned. "We're brother and sister, right? Fight like crazy, but we don't have to keep track of favors. I know you'll do a million for me by the time we die anyway."

Nora smiled. "And I'll email Alexa about this too… I'm not sure if we're doing it the right way or not. I mean, on Mayaneria it'd be a lot easier, we could just ask to go to jail and then the Jailzers would find out, it'd be like a confessional thing, right? Oh, man, I forgot, I told Tobias about the Jailzers but I called them by their full name, Jailtime Analyzers. I didn't even think about how we actually never call them that."

She bit her lip, and John shook his head. "Don't worry about it, Nora. And yeah, emailing Alexa is probably a good idea. She probably gets a ton of emails though, I mean, she was like mother to all of us, me and all you Vampire Spider Children."

"And Aristh Jeremy was our father," Nora responded, and John started laughing. "Jeremy was _funny_. Really sarcastic, you remember? He always acted like he hated having to take care of us, but he was really fun to play with."

John smiled at the memory of the two. Alexa taking him on a ride through the wind, her great white wings stretched out behind her. Alexa was a Biolex, made by the last living Arn. He had made her immortal, giving her cells the ability to regenerate at incredible speeds so that she could never die, no matter what the injury. She eternally looked like a seventeen-year-old, and so actually looked a year younger than Nora was, and two years younger than John was, but the two still looked up to her as their mother figure.

Jeremy on the other hand, although he had also been a part of Princess Maya's War Council, had been a Nadar, 1st generation. John and Jeremy had gotten along quite well, especially as John got older, and John still admired the Brit who was a good eighteen years older than he was.

"John?" asked Nora. He turned and looked at her, and then asked pensively, "You know, Alexa and Jeremy are really good friends, and like you said, they were basically our mother and father, but it wasn't like they were our married parents, you know? It was more like Alexa was a single mom to us, and then Jeremy was a single dad to us. Do you think they'll ever get together?"

Nora looked at him, confused. "John, Alexa is immortal. Jeremy is not. Alexa would never do that to anyone."

John shrugged, and then reached over for his phone. "Yeah, I guess. Well, anyway, I'll call Tobias now - do you have his phone number?"

"I think it's the same one as Loren's," Nora replied. "They're cousins – do you have hers?"

"Right," John answered, his mind still back in Somolonania. Man, he missed that place. Earth was fun, and it was cool sharing this apartment with his sister and experiencing this weird, weird culture, but still… there was no place like home.

**Author's Notes**

Yeah... I'm alive...


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

_Dear Diary,_

_I haven't written to you in about a year, year and a half, almost. My last entry was about Tobias and that night… actually, it's funny, most of my entries are about Tobias. I don't really know why._

_I had this idea of writing about myself, who I was now, so that maybe when I write to you again in a year I can see how I've changed._

_I'm sixteen now and I'm a junior here at Jefferson High. Guys think I'm pretty, and I'm the school slut but I also make money from the guys I sleep with. I have friends who I spend time with but I don't really have a best friend, you know? The best friend you can tell everything to?_

_My father doesn't care about me and he thinks I'm useless and worthless. He's right, I am. Even Tobias is more useful than me. At least he can cook._

_I'm talking about Tobias again. Why do I always do that? I don't know, I mean, we don't talk at all, we're not friends, I barely know him._

_John called our house just a little while ago. He asked if we could hang out some time, and then he asked to talk to Tobias, and Dad took the phone. John wanted to hang out with Tobias, too, to get to know him. Dad was really polite on the phone and said Tobias wasn't allowed to go, but after he hung up the phone…_

_He's hitting him right now. Downstairs. He's hurting him pretty bad. Jake's sitting on the bed right now, staring at the door. I think he wants to go down but it's too dangerous. Jake's my brother, and I have to look after him, right? Jake is only seven, even though he's really smart. It's the right thing to do to stay up here, I know it is. Tobias will be fine, and it'll all be okay._

_Love, Loren_

"Jake, what are you doing?" Loren asked sharply, looking up from her journal. Quickly signing off with a "Love, Loren" she put the diary away, back to its spot on her desk where it had been untouched for the last year and a half. "Jake, don't tell me you're going down there."

"A phone call," Jake said quietly, already standing. "A phone call. Our most beloved father is currently violently abusing Tobias, who is more of my father than anyone in this house, because someone called for Tobias."

He looked up at Loren, and she shook her head, scared for a moment by the look in his eyes. "Jake, you can't go down there. Jake, you can't. It's too dangerous. We have to stay up here. Tobias would want us to."

"And what do you know about what Tobias would want or not want?" Jake asked, the sneer in his voice not quite subtle enough for Loren to miss it. She blushed, and then looked down.

"Loren, Tobias is our cousin," Jake said, and she could hear a tiny note of pleading in his voice. "And… I know you want to. I read your diary and you know the only times you write? When Tobias is getting hurt, and you know the right thing to do is to go help him. But always, always, you go write in your diary and then convince yourself that no, it's better to be a coward."

Loren's eyes flew open, not so much at the insult, but at the fact that her seven-year-old brother had read her diary. "That's private!" she snapped. "You had no right to do that!"

"Is that's what brothers are supposed to do?" asked Jake wryly. "Just because I don't think like a seven-year-old doesn't mean I'm not one. Now what are you going to do, go tell on me to Dad?"

"I don't talk to Dad," Loren returned icily, and then a gasp of pain traveled up the stairs, followed by a low moan. She cringed as if she had received the blows, and then looked at Jake, tears starting to fill her eyes. 

"Jake," she whispered, each of Tobias' cries reaching her ears and filling them until she could hear nothing else. "What can I do? Won't he hurt me?"

"Would you rather sit here and continue to hate yourself?" Jake asked quietly, his words stabbing Loren, causing her to gasp. Hate herself… he was right, she did. She loathed herself for her cowardice, for her greediness, never standing up for anything that was good and right in this world.

"But I love you, Loren," her brother said, and then suddenly he was hugging her, pulling her off of her chair. Brushing aside the tears roughly, she hugged him back, aware of the fact that this was one of the first times she had ever touched someone just for comfort, to give it and receive it.

If John knew what his phone call had brought, he would be so sad, Loren thought, and then added fiercely. And he would despise me if he knew I had just sat here and done nothing.

Loren smiled through her tears. "What's the worst that can happen, anyway? So he'll slap me around a few times. He's done that before when drunk. No big deal."

She could feel Jake's arms tighten around her, and she knew that he was more afraid of the pain than she was. Bending over, she loosened his arms, and then held tightly onto his hand, again aware that this was the first time that she had done so.

"Let's do it," she whispered, and then the two of them walked out of the door, hand in hand, making their way down the steps.

Tobias winced, and then rolled over, trying to escape the kicks and punches that seemingly came from everywhere. His uncle was just one person, how did he manage to land a blow on his body every freaking second? Rolling again, he felt a crack as his uncle's foot slammed into his jaw, and then choking on the blood, he gasped when another foot hit his stomach.

"Friends!" his uncle bellowed. "You are _not _allowed to have friends! How _dare _you tell someone this house's number so he can call you!"

"I didn't," Tobias tried to gasp out, sitting up, but then a fist pushed into his face, throwing him back on the floor.

"Don't lie to me, boy! Or you'll get worse!"

Time to construct an excuse, thought Tobias dimly. Or just confess to everything, that works too.

Another blow, this time to his kidneys, and Tobias fell flat on his stomach, retching, before curling up in a ball. His uncle stopped for a moment, and Tobias looked up, hoping that they were done, but then he felt the sting of a cane on his back and he cried out.

He threw up his arms to protect his face, but then his uncle slammed the stick into his unprotected ribs, and Tobias moaned, and hated John intensely for a moment. Who the hell was John, anyway? Tobias didn't know any John's. Loren seemed to know him though – but why would any of Loren's friends call for _him_? It had to be some sort of prank. It was probably Zach, laughing right now, knowing how much trouble Tobias would get into.

Knuckles in his face, his head snapped against the floor and then he felt his uncle's shadow rise above him. Thinking that he was going to bring the cane down on his body in full force, Tobias desperately tried to crawl away, when a kick to his chest stopped him.

"Friends, Tobias? I swear, the next time I find out about you having friends, this will seem like a sprinkling. This isn't even the first time, no, Zach told me about you talking to a girl in the mall. I let it go, biding my time, giving you another chance, and you completely blew it. I want you to swear, Tobias, no friends."

"No friends," Tobias agreed, just happy that the beating had stopped. "Never. Thank you, uncle."

His uncle chuckled at the words Tobias was required to say at the end of each session, as his uncle called them. "Oh, boy, we're not done yet. I told you the session we just had – that was for the first time. Now, this is for the second time."

He brought the cane down straight on Tobias head, and dazed, Tobias lay limply on the floor, not caring anymore. What did it matter? He just wanted the pain to go away, through death, through anything.

His uncle flipped him over onto his back with his foot, and then brought his foot down into his groin. Curling up, in too much pain to even breathe, Tobias bit his lip, the tears mixing in with the blood on his face.

"Dad, stop."

His uncle paused, and Tobias gasped. Blessed relief. Twisting around, he could see Loren and Jake, holding hands, both of them looking as though they were facing a monster about to eat them.

"Dad, please," Loren's voice said again. He was confused at why Loren was caring – since when did she ever care? - but at that moment, all he could think of was the fact that his uncle had stopped.

"Dad." Jake this time. "Please stop."

Tobias could see his uncle look back and forth between the two. "And why should I stop?"

"You're hurting him," Loren said, and Tobias probed with his tongue for a loose tooth. There it was. He'd have to pull it out later.

"And since that is exactly what I want to do, why should I stop?"

"Dad, please." Jake again. "For us."

Tobias watched his uncle stare at his children for a moment, and then flinched when his uncle began laughing. "For you? For _you_? Like I _care _what happens to _you?_"

Oh, no, Tobias thought, when his uncle shifted weight, lifting the cane up high. Tobias flipped over, hoping to take it on his back and then tensed as it came crashing down, clenching his teeth, his hands balled tightly into fists…

There was a loud crack, but the blow never came. He peered up, and saw that Jake was standing over him, and had extended his arms so that the cane would hit them, dead on.

"Dad," Jake started, and Tobias could hear his tears. "That hurt."

His uncle roughly shoved Jake aside, causing him to fall on the ground, and then he reached down to grab Tobias by his collar, ripping the shirt even more. And I just went shopping, Tobias thought automatically. At least I hadn't just bought this shirt although I'm going to need a new one, this one is covered in blood.

He lifted Tobias up until they were face to face, and then casually let go, letting him fall. Tobias gasped when he hit the floor, his head, shoulder and elbow taking the impact. Another violent kick in his ribs, and then the cane came right down on his throat, when he heard a voice cry out, "No, Dad!" and the pain stopped once more.

It was Loren this time. She had her arms around her father, holding him tightly, as if trying to keep him from moving. This time, however, Tobias' uncle didn't laugh as he roughly pried her arms away and pushed her away. He stepped over Tobias' head, crushing Tobias' hand under his heel, but then the pressure let up and Tobias turned to see his uncle shoving Loren backwards with each step before reaching for her throat.

There was terror in her eyes as she looked at Tobias, and for a moment their eyes met before his uncle's hand closed in on her throat.

Tobias watched his uncle lean close to whisper something to Loren, and then saw a confused expression on Loren's face. The hand tightened, then, and desperately, Loren looked to Tobias again when all of a sudden his uncle had dragged her by the throat onto the ground, kneeling over her.

No, Tobias thought. If I let this happen… Loren will never come help me again. I… this is the first time Loren has ever helped me. If I help her now, she will help me again and again. With her help, and Jake's, I can survive. I know I can. But… I have to take the fall for her now.

"Uncle," he called, his voice ragged. "Take me instead."

Surprised, his uncle jerked up, and released Loren. Getting up, he looked down at Tobias who was still kneeling on the ground and then grabbed him by his face, pressing his thumbs so hard into his cheeks it made the tears come out.

"I will take you whenever and wherever I want to," his uncle enunciated slowly. "And you will have no say in the matter."

He released Tobias but Tobias still held his breath, waiting for what was going to happen. Everyone was still, Jake sitting up, Loren on her elbow, Tobias on his knees, his uncle standing over them all.

"You're worthless," his uncle stated loudly, looking at all three of them. "Nobody wants you. I know I didn't. Your father," he turned to Tobias, "left you to _me_, he wanted to get rid of you so badly. And the rest of you brats – you're birth control gone wrong. Abortions that should have happened."

His uncle paused, and then said to Tobias nastily, "What do you say?"

"Thank you, uncle," Tobias whispered, and then his uncle strode out of the door, slamming it behind him, and Tobias began breathing again.

He reached into his mouth, and pulled out the tooth, spitting out blood as he did so. Holding it up, he looked through two black eyes to see Jake crying.

Crawling painfully, he pulled Jake towards him, holding him to his chest, the tooth still in his hand. He looked at Loren who crawled over as well, and the three of them awkwardly held each other, kneeling with the table on one side of them, and the couches on the other.

"Thank you," Tobias whispered just as he had a few minutes ago, but with a completely different tone. "Thank you. First time in seventeen years a session has been cut short. Thank you."

"I'm sorry, Tobias," and he turned to see Loren sobbing. He reached out, and extended a bruised and bleeding hand to her. "Don't be sorry."

She grabbed his hand, and then lifted her other one, and Tobias cringed. "Sorry," he whispered when she hesitated, and then placed it on his cheek. "Habit."

Jake scooted in between them, and then grabbed Tobias around the middle. "I was so scared, Tobias. I never saw him, I always hid in my room, I'm sorry, Tobias, I'm sorry, so sorry…"

Tears were gushing down Jake's face, and Loren was holding onto his hand continuing to sob, and Tobias gave a half smile, but stopped, feeling the cuts in his mouth. "Man, I'm the only one not crying," he joked softly. "And I'm the one who just got beat up."

Loren smiled through her tears and then responded, "We have to get out of here."

Tobias paused, remembering the last time he had tried to run away, and then looked at her, not trying to hide his fear. She gazed back at him with tear-filled eyes and said softly, "I know, Tobias. But you can't live like this for long. You're not going to live like this for long. He… he's going to kill you when you turn eighteen. He told us kids, but said we couldn't tell you, but I don't care anymore, I don't care…"

Her sobs got louder, and Tobias stroked her back, thinking. He was seventeen now, and would turn eighteen in the spring. That gave him three more months of hell before it ended.

No, he corrected himself. Don't think of it that way. Think of it as three months to figure out how to get out of here. You have to try again, Loren's right.

"He'll find me though," Tobias responded. "Anywhere I go, he'll find me. He'll never stop hunting me as long as I'm on Earth."

"So we leave Earth," Jake said, his voice returning a little bit more to normal. "Tobias… we can go to the Nadar Center in town and ask to leave with them. They're really good to refugees, and this is obviously a refugee situation."

Tobias wasn't sure what a refugee situation exactly was, and the look Loren gave him told him she didn't really know either. But Jake was smarter than they were, and he was probably right. Maybe they could pull this off. Maybe they could actually leave Earth and start over somewhere.

"John – we can ask him, too," Loren said suddenly. Tobias looked at her, and then asked, "Who is John, anyway? I don't even know a John and then he calls and all of a sudden I find myself on the ground, his foot grinding into me."

"Nora's brother," Loren responded. "That's what he told me the first time I met him. That he had a sister named Nora. You know Nora, right? I've seen her once or twice in the halls."

Nora's brother. A wave of understanding hit him, and Tobias closed his eyes, remembering his last conversation with Nora. She must have asked his brother to call, hoping to bring a little bit of happiness into his life. He shook his head, ignoring his throbbing head, unsure of whether to feel angry or grateful.

"What's wrong?"

Sighing, Tobias explained. "Nora knows something is up with me. She was asking me questions the other day, when we went to the mall, about my scars and everything. She must have told her brother."

"Are you mad at them?" Loren asked, and Tobias hesitated for a moment, before shaking his head. "I don't really get mad. I mean… they were just trying to help and Nora's helped me out a lot this past year, and… the only person I really hate is _him_."

The venom in his voice surprised even Tobias, and Jake turned to look at his cousin. "Tobias?"

"Nothing, it's fine," Tobias responded, shaking his head again. "Here, I should go wash up and then clean the floor," and the three of them unsteadily got up, at the same time, smiling at their efforts. They released each other and then Tobias nodded briefly before heading into the bathroom to clean himself up.

He opened the door, stepped inside, and then stared at the mirror, taking in every bruise, all the blood, the cuts and torn flesh. He opened his mouth, closed it, and then opened it again, as he spoke to his reflection, the words soft but clear.

"I lied to Jake, you know. The only person I really hate is you."

--

"John, I forwarded something to you that Alexa sent me. Can you check your email now? It's kind of important."

John pulled off his bracelet and then ordered, "Computer open." The gray plastic unfolded until it was the size of a standard Earthling notebook and hardened. He wouldn't be able to full connect to the Mayanet, but at least he could still read his email on his own computer.

_From: Alexa (biolexa at chee dot net)_

_To: Nora (johnsister at chee dot net)_

_Forward: John (norabrother at chee dot net)_

_Re: Tobias the tobias_

_Nora, it's good to hear from you! I hope you are having fun, and that John is behaving yourself, and not getting into too much trouble. I've never been to Earth but apparently they have some strange customs. Thank you for the email and I am very sorry that I am so late in responding. I spent the last month working on trying to find a species called the Furries – we have a representative from them who tells me that they are enslaved, and he begged for the Nadar Army's help and I have been working on it non stop, and Jeremy of course refuses to help me with anything as usual Don't listen to a word she says._

_That was Jeremy, hijacking the email. Anyway, about your question – first of all, whatever you do, don't contact him in a way that his parents or guardian will know about. Don't call him at his house, don't email him in any way. The only way you must talk to him is at school when you could be talking to anyone. I don't know the specific details of this case, but if he is as abused as you're describing him, Nora, then we should be very careful._

_Talk to him in class sometime, and offer him a way out. Tell him about the Nadar Center, and about how he can sign up to leave for Somolonania either as a Nadar or as a Kyan. You might want to explain to him though that Nadar means army and Kyan means citizen, because I don't think that is common knowledge on Earth. If you make it absolutely clear, however, that he will be protected from whatever he is facing when he leaves Earth, then I think he will at least reveal more to you. And be patient. It will take time for him to open up to you, and don't push the issue if he really doesn't want to share anything._

_Also, tell John not to morph, or to tell anyone he can morph. I know you guys told me about last fall how he morphed to bear to defend a lady, and that's fine; however, don't do it again. I can't explain to you why right now since this isn't a secure connection but take my word for it, you guys don't want to be attracting attention to yourselves right now. I'll explain it all to you my next email, after Jeremy and I get a connection set up that even _you_ won't be able to hack._

_I must fly, now, but keep me posted._

_Alexa_

John finished the email, and then turned to look at his sister, who gave him a look, her eyes full of concern and worry. John started to speak, and then hesitated, and then Nora suddenly broke the silence.

"Do you think… do you think we made a mistake?"

"I don't know," John responded. "I… well, I mean, our intentions were good…"

"But what if he got hurt because we called?" Nora whispered, and for a moment John loved Nora fiercely, for taking an equal share of the blame and not even letting John feel alone and miserable. But then he began shaking his head, his thoughts back to Tobias.

"I don't know, Nora… but… I think he'll understand. I think… just… we shouldn't call back probably. We should use different methods to help him."

"Like what?"

John started to speak, but then Nora answered her own question. "Maybe I can give him a yahkbu pill, so that if he's in pain he can take one and he won't feel it anymore. And… and I'll give him more stuff from our med kit, stuff that you can't tell from the outside is actually working so no one will be able to tell."

"That's a good idea," John answered, and then he turned back to the email. Pausing for just a moment, he asked, "And why do you think she doesn't want me to morph?"

Nora also hesitated and then answered lowly, "She doesn't want us to attract attention to ourselves. That means someone wants to hurt us, or at least hurt Mayanites, and she doesn't want them to be able to find us."

John stared at his sister, and then whispered, "Yeerks?"

Nora shook her head violently, "No, John, don't worry, no, it can't be. They wouldn't put us in danger. They wouldn't. The Nadar wouldn't ever put us somewhere where they couldn't protect us. And Yeerks…"

John heard his sister trail off, but he couldn't focus so he stared at the email Alexa had just sent. He… if it were Yeerks again… but why would it be? It could be someone, anyone that didn't like Mayaneria, that didn't like Princess Maya or the Animorphs. But… but the Yeerks didn't like…

"John," he heard Nora say dimly, but he didn't respond, and instead, clenched his fists, and then shook his head, as if trying to keep his memories from rising above the surface of his consciousness. He had drowned those memories, kept them in a stagnant dead pool, and he did not want them to come out of the water…

I'll kill myself before they come get me again, he thought. I'll kill myself, and Nora.

But his thoughts of death triggered the ghosts to rise up, dripping wet as John's eyes widened, his breath constricted. He heard his sister call out to him again, but he shook his head, trying not to feel that hard board he had been chained to when his Yeerk was in the pool, the darkness and the silence of that room that were his earliest memories, the man who leered at him in that darkness, and then Princess Maya, her head bowed as she turned her bloodied face away from him in the Blade Ship…

"John!"

He jerked away from the shoreline of that lake and then began breathing again, his sister's concerned face the only thing there.

"Stay with me, John," she whispered, and John nodded as she continued, "Remember, you are a Kyan, a Mayanite Kyan, and the Nadar will never abandon us. Even if a hundred must die to save our lives and guarantee our freedom, there will be more than a hundred volunteers willing to do so."

John nodded, the breaths starting come out more easily as he clung to his sister's hand. Yes. She was right. Safety and freedom – as long as a single Nadar still lived, he was guaranteed those two things. There was nothing to fear.

And is his hand trembled a little bit, if he still caught his breath thinking about the email – well, that was only natural. Anyone would be at least a little afraid of the Yeerks.

--

Why now? Tobias wondered, as if to question the hand that had turned on the faucet, that now held the knife. Why now, after Loren decided to help me? Why not before?

I tried before, the hand answered. But Jake stopped me, remember? He caught me and then convinced you that it would be better not to. But I hate you, Tobias, and I will kill you in the end.

No, Tobias responded. _He_'ll kill me. Loren told me.

Not if I get you first.

But Jake said not to. Jake said that he loved me, that it would hurt him if you killed me. So I made you stop.

And how many years of hell has it been since then? Four years, almost five? Tobias, you are almost eighteen. Your dad left you to _him_ when you were three. It's almost been fifteen years since you became _his _slave. It's time to end it.

No. I can't. Not now.

When? After the next time he hurts you? The next time he almost kills you himself? This is the only thing in your power, Tobias. The only thing you can actually do. Everything else is under _his_ control. Everything else you do because _he _tells you to.

Tobias hesitated, and brought the knife closer to his wrist when the only memory he had of his parents flashed into his mind. His smiling mother, as he walked closer to her, and his father by the side. And…

For the first time, he saw that there was someone else in that memory, someone small, like he had been. A girl, sitting by his father, her face happy and comfortable in a way only a baby's could be.

Then he heard Jake's voice again, from four years ago. "Tobias… you always have something to live for. Always. Live for me, live for you, live for life itself because… because it's precious. My father… he doesn't care about life. He made me carelessly, and when he gave me to you, he didn't care about me and wouldn't have even noticed if I had died. But you… you, Tobias… you cared about me. You stopped going to school to take care of me. You made sure I would live. You value life. You're not like _him_. _Don't_ be like _him_."

Trembling, Tobias put the knife down, the words echoing in his ears. You're not like _him_. _Don't_ be like _him_. Slowly, he opened his clenched hand, and then put the knife away under the sink where he had stored it four years ago. His breathing slowly returning to normal, he washed his face, and then turned to open the bathroom door when he stopped and looked back at his reflection one last time before turning and forcing himself to return to Jake and Loren.

And somewhere, a trillion light years away, Toomin sighed with relief.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

"_Don't marry my brother, Becky," I told her, looking at her bending over the man I had just roughed up. The idiot had tried to stop me from threatening her a little and so I just gave him what he asked for._

_Becky lashed out her arm at me, trying to take her phone back, but I held it up higher than she could reach. I didn't want her calling the police just yet. She stood up and then spat at me, "I will marry him, and I will bring happiness to his life, no matter how much you may protest, you _monster_."_

"_Your choice, Becky," I responded, and then turned back and went into the bar, my mind already buzzing. So she would marry him, then. Well, I would have to find some other way to get my revenge._

_I went up to the front of the bar and called for a couple of drinks, handing them off to the people who had helped me. We drank and joked, and slowly my mind eased, and I put off worrying about my vengeance until later. I'd figure out some way, I knew I would._

_Suddenly there was loud cursing in the back, and people began screaming. I stumbled up, wondering what in the world was going on when I heard sizzling sounds, almost like a laser beam going off…_

_Impossible, I thought, but then I stood up straight, and saw a beautiful young girl, red curly hair and pale skin, shooting with deadly accuracy at everyone in the bar._

_She's coming for me, I realized somehow, not even knowing whether it was right or not. She's here because of me._

_I had to hide, and so I crouched behind a table in the very back of the bar, hoping in my drunkenness she wouldn't notice me. I hid while everyone around me died – she let no one escape. And then when she approached me, I knew that I was going to die._

_How could this happen to me! I hadn't yet enacted my vengeance on Timothy, and I was going to _die?

_I begged her like I had begged no one else, pleading for her not to kill me. She ignored me, and pointed her ray gun at me, but nothing came out. I breathed heavily, hoping beyond hope that she would let me live._

_She stopped and stared at me, and then said in a voice full of wrath, "I leave you alive so you can tell them that Anna the Avenger has returned."_

_I bolted past her, through the front doors, out onto the streets, narrowly missing being hit by a car. I couldn't believe it. I had been spared. How had that happened?_

_I took a step forward, and then stepped into a mist so heavy for a moment I thought I had lost my way. This area wasn't nearly as foggy as further north, what was going?_

_ETHAN._

_I whirled, but could see no one._

_ETHAN, SHE IS NOT WHO SHE SEEMS SHE IS._

_Suddenly I had a vision of a black haired girl, with steel blue eyes staring back at me, and then it was gone with a single whispered name: Maya._

"_Who are you?" I cried out. "_What _are you?"_

_A flash of a red eye, and then the voice said, MY NAME IS CRAYAK._

"_What do you want?" I asked, a little more quietly. Whatever this thing was… it seemed to want to help me, or at least give me information…_

_TAKE HIS CHILDREN. AND HIS BOY – ETHAN, YOU WILL NEVER LACK FOR ANYTHING YOU DESIRE AS LONG AS YOU MAKE SURE HIS BOY ALWAYS SUFFERS._

"_Why?" I asked, stunned by how much this creature knew, and impressed by the idea. His children, of course! That would be the greatest revenge! "I mean, I will, but… what is it to you?"_

_The creature seemed to laugh, big, booming, laughter rolling out. IT WILL HELP ME WIN A GAME I'M PLAYING, ETHAN._

_And then the mist was gone, and I was alone on the sidewalk._

_Ethan's Memories_

"John," Nora called, trying to push her way past a couple obnoxiously making out in the hall. The bell was about to ring and she needed to know if John had gotten the email she had forwarded to him. "John!"

The bell rang, and annoyed, Nora finally burst out of the crowd into the classroom and yelled, "JOHN!"

"Nora the Nadar," a dry voice commented. Nora turned to face her teacher. "Please keep your voice down."

Nora rolled her eyes. The first day of school this teacher had called out her first name in roll, and then asked her what her last name was since it wasn't on record. Nora had explained that in Somolonania, they didn't have last names and had explained why. She had gone through the same thing in all of her other classes, to the point that she could recite from memory her speech.

"_There are a species of alien called the Vampire Spiders who abducted humans and landed on the planet Somolonania, where I come from. I was born on the planet to two of these abducted humans, who were killed shortly after I was born. However, the Vampire Spiders followed a policy of making us humans breed as quickly as possible, with as many mates as possible. So all of us Vampire Spider Children, except me, had parents, but they didn't know who their parents were, and since there were no family units, there was no pedigree, no genealogy that we could keep track of. Therefore, Amadi, our first president, decided that we would not use last names but would rather only go by first names. When we have to identify ourselves completely, however, our names are linked to a DNA sequence that is checked against a database containing all our DNA to make sure we are who we say we are."_

That had shut most of them up, except for this one teacher, Mr. Strohl, who whenever he wanted to call either John or Nora by a full name, had always appended "the Nadar" after their first name. Nora had considered telling the teacher how extremely offensive that was in their society, but had never really found the right moment to bring it up.

"She's a Kyan," her brother spoke up, in response. Startled, Nora looked over at him as he continued, "Not a Nadar."

"What is a Kyan?" asked Mr. Strohl, leaning forward. Nora found her seat and then readied herself to give another explanation that she would probably have to repeat a million times.

"Nadar are warriors. They are the soldiers," she explained. "Soldiers who live off of bloodlust and love of the fight. They are here to protect the rest of us civilians, or Kyan. The distinction is very important from where I come from."

She stopped, hoping Mr. Strohl would get it without her having to press the issue. But he simply nodded and said, "That's interesting," and then turned to the rest of the class.

The bracelet on her wrist blinked green and she looked at it, reading the message scrolling across its screen. _What's up?_

Well, John, she said silently. It's nice that our computers understand and obey thought-speech commands so you can send me messages in class. However, there is a slight problem with that. You can actually morph just enough to get thought speech ability in class. I, however, cannot morph at all. None of us Vampire Spider Children can, since we are all Kyans and therefore are not eligible to apply for a morphing license until we finish our formal education. You, however, are a Former Controller. You already could morph before you came to Somolonania, even though you are a Kyan as well. Even though you were the First Kyan.

Nora was about to continue her silent tirade when Mr. Strohl interrupted her. "Nora the Nadar. Would you please stop staring out of the window and pay attention?"

Gritting her teeth, she forced herself to nod, when suddenly the door to the classroom was flung open. Startled, she turned to see a human, wearing the familiar Nadar Army uniform that covered him completely, even his face with the mask that made every Mayanite Nadar appear faceless in battle.

Relief and gratitude flooded through her, as it did every time she saw a soldier in the Nadar Army, or Nadarmy as the Mayanite Kyan so affectionately called it. Was there danger? Was he or she there for John and Nora? Nora knew the law of the Nadar – protection of the Kyan at all costs, and no matter how high the danger. Hadn't she just reminded John of it when he had been terrified about the possibility of Yeerks on Earth? They both knew that even if they were abducted and taken across the universe and sold into slavery that the Nadarmy would find them and bring them back home, and they would never rest until they did so.

She half rose in her seat when a thought speech voice sounded in her head, (Do not fear, little Kyan. There is no direct danger to you or your brother.)

"What's wrong?" she asked him, starting to get alarmed. No direct danger? What did that mean?

(Earth is being invaded again,) the Nadar responded, and this time it was in open thought speech. (Everyone must go home.)

"Invaded?" asked Mr. Strohl. "By whom? And who are you? This is a school, what are you doing here?"

(The Yeerks are here again. And I am here to pick up one of our spies on Earth.)

Suddenly, a Hispanic boy Nora had barely even noticed all year stood up. Leaving all his things in his desk, he walked over to the Nadar and smiled at Nora and John. "I was assigned to this post to watch out for any Yeerk activity, and also to keep an eye on you two and make sure you were safe."

The boy looked at the other students, most of whom were stunned, or beginning to show fear at all the strangeness that was before their eyes. Nora was sympathetic – after all, it would have frightened her to have one of her friends, a fellow classmate, all of a sudden turn out to be a spy for a foreign planet's army.

"Should we come with you?" she heard her brother ask, and then saw the Hispanic boy nod. "Yes. We will take you back to our camp here on Earth and you will stay there for now, until we can take you back to the _A_ out in orbit around this planet."

Happily, Nora got up, scooping up her school materials. Pulling on her backpack, she began walking past her still classmates, who were looking at her with… could it be jealousy? Fear? Jealousy because she was going to safety, and they had no one they could turn to for protection?

Her eyes fell on Tobias, and the boy looked back at her, his eyes sad but a smile on his face and she flashed back to the day Tobias had come into school, completely battered and bruised, cuts and welts all over him. It had been the day after John had called his house, and she knew instinctively that it had been her fault.

She had given him medications that would stop the pain, and also gave him a pill that she told him would numb the nerves in his body, and keep him from feeling anything for a good hour. She asked no questions and he gave her no explanations, but one day he had come in to school with a black eye and instinctively given her a hug and she knew that she had helped him.

"I still owe you two favors," he said as she paused by his desk but she shook her head. "You only owe me one favor. The meds were righting a wrong I did to you."

Tobias nodded slowly, and then Nora looked over at Loren who was also smiling sadly. She, Loren, Tobias and John had grown closer over the school year, often eating lunch together and laughing at John's craziness.

(Nora,) the Nadar called, and Nora pulled herself away before turning to the rest of the class.

"Go home," she told them, echoing the Nadar's orders. She turned to the Nadar and asked, "Will they be taken care of?"

She couldn't read anything behind the Nadar's masked suit, but she did hear the open thought speech. (Go home, and on every local TV station and on the radio and at the website www dot nadarcenter dot com, there will be instructions on how to get to the refugee camp, and what you should bring. The Yeerks are approaching swiftly, so you have about two hours to get to the camp. It is not more than thirty minutes outside of this city by car; however, I suggest you hurry because you do not want to be here when the Yeerks arrive. This message will play on your announcement system here at school in a few moments – another Nadar is communicating with your principal right now.)

The Nadar went silent, and then the speakers began blaring, forcing the students into action as they packed, some of them quickly, others in a more panicked manner, all of them fearful. Nora grabbed John's hand and then forced her way over to Tobias, reaching out for his hand and then pulling both boys over to where Loren was quickly packing her bag.

"Forget that stuff, Loren, you won't need it," Nora said quickly. "Listen, now is your chance. Here –"

Nora fished out a Nadarmy issued RayGun, and placed it in Tobias' hand. "It works exactly like a Dracon beam or a shredder. It's set to stun a human right now – you adjust the settings here – and pull the trigger."

She paused and then took deep breath. "Loren, Tobias, I don't know what's going on in your family, but I know something is up. I made a mistake earlier this year when I tried to push and Tobias paid for it. I backed off though, but I'm telling you, if you guys want to get away, now is the time. Go to the refugee camp, and come find us. We'll stay with you guys as the Nadar defeat the Yeerks and then we can bring you with us back to Mayaneria."

"You sure the Nadar will defeat the Yeerks?" asked Loren, her voice trembling slightly as she looked first at Nora, and then at John.

"Of course," John and Nora answered at the same time, and then they grinned at each other. "Listen, Loren, Tobias," John continued. "The Nadar Army has never been beaten. And it never will be beaten. In the impossible chance that the Yeerks do win this one, the Nadar Army will be back to rescue us all. They never leave Kyan. That is their law."

"But we aren't Kyan," Loren pointed out. "We're Earthlings. And I don't know, I'm just... like two hours is cutting it kind of close, isn't it? They couldn't have warned us earlier?"

"And have the Yeerks find out?" asked Nora, surprised. "Then the Yeerks would change their plans and the warning would be pointless. Besides, the Nadar don't even need two hours to win. They could say the Yeerks were coming in five seconds and the Nadar would still win."

"The gun is for your uncle," Nora added. "Not the Yeerks. You don't have to worry about the Yeerks."

A quick glance over her shoulder and she saw that the first Nadar was gone, and there was only the Hispanic boy, the Nadar spy, waiting for them in the doorway. They would have to leave.

"We have to go," Nora said, and her brother reached out and clasped Loren's head in his hands, touching foreheads, and then Tobias'. Nora did the same, murmuring Creator's Blessings, before releasing the two Earthlings.

"That's how you do it in Somolonania," John grinned, and then he saluted the Earthling way. "We will see you soon."

"Goodbye," Nora added, smiling at the two who waved back, before she headed towards the doorway, towards the Nadar, towards safety.

--

"Let's go," Loren said instantly after their friends had left. "We'll hop on a bus and leave. We can get to the refugee camp right away, and even if _he_ is there, he can't do anything to you in front of all those people, and if he tries, people will stop him."

But Tobias shook his head. "We need to wait for Jake. He'll be back at the house by now. We can go there, hope that _he_ isn't there. If he is, then…"

"Then we'll shoot him," finished Loren impatiently. "But for now, we have to go. I don't want to be here when the Yeerks get here."

A flash of fear went through her as she remembered all the movies and books that she had consumed over the years, and all the stories she had heard from ex-Controllers. Aliens were coming… to take over their brains… it sounded like a science fiction movie, not something in real life, and yet hadn't aliens come before to Earth? Hadn't they almost taken it over?

"Loren," she heard, and she turned to face Tobias, who also looked worried. "We need to get going."

She nodded, and swallowing her fears for the moment, picked up her backpack. The two left quickly, heading through the swarms of students who were all streaming out of the exits. Cursing their lack of a car, Loren led the way to a senior she knew, who lived nearby.

"Moni, are you going home?" Loren asked quickly, and the senior girl nodded, cramming stuff from her locker into her backpack. "Can you give us a ride – not to our house, I know, it's different now, just to your house and we'll walk the rest of the way."

The girl turned to face Loren. "How do I know you're not Yeerks, huh? It is different now. You could be Controllers, and I wouldn't know."

Loren tried not to show any impatience on her face. "Moni, for the last few months I've only been hanging out with the kids from the Nadar planet. You don't think they would figure it out with their technology if I had been a Controller?"

Moni shrugged and threw her backpack over her shoulder. "Maybe you guys are in cahoots, or something. How would I know? They're not from Earth either, we can't trust them. Sorry, Loren, you're on your own."

Frustrated, and starting to feel flickers of panic, Loren began to snap back a reply when she heard Tobias say from behind her, "Moni, just answer the question. Are you going home or not?"

Moni glanced at him. "Yes, but I'm still not taking you."

"Listen to me, Moni. I know you're going home to pick up your stuff, but Loren and I have to go back to pick up Jake, our seven-year-old brother. You can gag and tie us if you want, keep a gun to our heads, but please, for the love of all that is holy, take us back. I won't let Jake die, and I won't let the Yeerks have him."

The senior paused, and then when she grudgingly nodded and said, "Okay, fine, hurry then," ushering them forward. Loren grinned at Tobias and gave him a thumbs up and he smiled back in return when suddenly an explosion rocked the school and Loren tripped, landing face down on the school floor. Groaning, she pulled herself up, wondering what in the world had happened. "Tobias?" she called, turning around. A voice answered her and she hurried to help Tobias up, asking, "What just happened?"

"I think the Yeerks attacked," Tobias answered, his voice cracking. "Which means we really really need to get out of here."

Loren turned to Moni who was sprawled out on the floor. "Moni? You okay? Come on we have to go!"

There was no answer.

Not wanting to believe what had to be the truth, Loren reached down to shake her. "Moni? Come on, Moni, we have to go."

Tobias reached down and began pulling out the girl's pockets, and then grabbed her keys. "Let's go, Loren. Look at the _blood_, Loren. It's spilling out her head. She's dead."

Dead… the word hit Loren like a wave, leaving her sputtering in its wake. Numbly she followed as Tobias pulled her out into the parking lot, where people were shouting and screaming, the unexpected blast having sent people past the edge of panic.

"I don't know how to drive," Tobias started and thrust the keys at Loren. "Get us out of here."

She took the keys automatically, and then went to the familiar car that she had just driven in a few days ago. Moni… she had been a friend of hers hadn't she? And now she wasn't there. Strange to sit in the driver's seat. Strange to hear Moni's music come on.

"Loren," Tobias said gently, but insistently. "Let's get out of here."

Turn engine on. Change gear. Reverse. Out onto the street now. Stoplight. Brake. Driving now. Home.

Loren pulled onto their street, and then parked on the side of the street by their house when there was a tap on the passenger side's window, Tobias' side.

She looked over when Tobias recoiled.

Her father was standing there, smiling. "Nice car," he said through the glass. "Now, get out of there. We have to go to the refugee camp. The Yeerks are here."

Tobias fumbled with the door, and then opened it carefully, not wanting to hit his uncle. He flinched when his uncle grabbed him roughly, yanking him out of the car.

"You're staying here, Tobias," he announced bluntly, and Tobias' eyes opened. What? To be captured by the Yeerks?

His uncle's hate-filled face was easy to read.

"_The gun is for your uncle. Not the Yeerks. You don't have to worry about the Yeerks."_

Nora's voice came back to him, and slowly, almost unwillingly, Tobias reached down into his pants pocket. _This gun is for your uncle…_

"What are you doing?"

The sharp suspicion in his uncle's voice caused Tobias to freeze. "Nothing."

His uncle eyed him, and then swiftly patted him down, reaching into his pocket for the RayGun. Defeated, Tobias looked to the ground, knowing he was dead for sure now, when his uncle began laughing. Glancing up, Tobias saw his uncle examining the gun, smiling.

"You know, Tobias," his uncle began slowly, as if alien invaders were not about to kill them all. "It's your birthday in a few days."

Tobias hadn't known the exact date, but he knew that it was tomorrow or later. Still, his face showed nothing, although he knew exactly what his uncle was saying. Tobias was turning eighteen in a few days. Tobias was dead in a few days.

Jake and Loren and he had planned on leaving tomorrow before everyone had woken up, Tobias having wanted to put it off for as long as possible. But with the Yeerk invasion, and Nora's gift of the RayGun…

"I didn't know that," answered Tobias, knowing that if Loren hadn't told him, he wouldn't have known. His uncle had never told him when he was born, and he had never asked.

His uncle tapped the RayGun and then said, "Okay, I've changed my mind. Tobias, you're coming with us. Zach and Tyler, those brats, took the car to school today but as I was promised, I never lack for what I want, do I? You guys come deliver me a car when I need one. After all, I've got a few more days with you, haven't, I, Tobias? If I left you here you might escape and then I wouldn't be living up to my end of the bargain."

This time the confusion Tobias was feeling was genuine. Bargain? What was he talking about?

His uncle shoved him back into the car, and Loren got out, getting in the back as well. Jake was just emerging from the house, and the two gestured him over quickly and he ran to the back.

"The Yeerks are coming," Jake blurted out as soon as he got in, and then was facing a RayGun. Tobias' uncle began laughing, taking the gun back as he started the car. "Man, kid, you should have seen the look on your face."

Jake was silent for the rest of the ride.

--

John pulled off his bracelet and then ordered, "Computer open," watching with satisfaction as the gray plastic unfolded until its screen was large enough to use. It had been almost a full year since he had used his computer with all its capabilities, or in other words, since he had been connected to the Mayanet.

"Crazy," Nora had commented when he showed how his hand was practically trembling from excitement. John had gotten back at her though when he had pointed out that she had instantly returned to designing a new outfit on her computer as soon as she had gotten access to the Mayanet.

John was interested in words though, words and essays and stories and poems. This time he was scanning through one of Princess Maya's records, when he noticed a connection he hadn't seen before.

Leaning forward into his computer, he tapped his finger on the upper right hand corner of the screen, book marking the stop for future reference. He touched the lower right hand corner of the screen next, tapping it several times until he reached another section of her records. He scanned the new section quickly and then bookmarked it as well before calling his sister over.

"Listen," he demanded. "There's a connection here I didn't see before. This is the part where Princess Maya crash-landed on Earth, in North Korea, okay?"

Nora looked up, and John took a deep breath before starting.

"_Who cares!? Think about how to survive this crash that is impossible to survive!_

_I was about to respond to myself with a sharp retort, when the still flaming escape pod began slowing down._

_Impossible._

_My space ship landed softly on the land of a new planet. I darted outside of a hole created by the melting metal and ran as far away as I could, knowing that the explosion created by the pod's electronic components mixed with the heat would be great. I heard a BOOM! behind me and darted my stalk eyes backwards to see the prison that I had just escaped from go up in flames that would get rid of all evidence that an alien space ship had landed._

_The Andalites like to keep their presence unknown._

_I continued to run as I heard a voice, not the Ellimist that had started this mess, but someone else._

_YOU OWE ME._

_Whatever. This was too confusing. I was getting tired of all these galactic beings messing with my life as if I were actually important.'"_

Nora nodded. "Okay, so… what?"

"Now, listen to this," John answered, heading to his second bookmark.

"_I took one step forward towards the raving lights and harsh laughter and stepped into a mist so heavy that for a moment I thought I had lost consciousness._

_LITTLE NADAR._

_It wasn't the Ellimist, I could tell that much._

_YOU OWE ME._

_My mind flashed back to the time I had been crashing down to Earth, and how the ship had miraculously slowed down, and that booming voice..._

_"I am here to pay that debt," I answered, my voice steady and clear._

_I AM CRAYAK._

_I saw a vision of a giant flaming eye, red, with machinery._

_YOU HAVE FIFETEEN MINUTES TO KILL ALL OF THEM. YOU WILL ESCAPE._

_My right arm began burning, and I looked down at it._

_A glowing C was printed just under my right wrist._

_IT WILL GO AWAY AFTER YOU PAY YOUR DEBT, NOT WHEN YOU MORPH._

_I stepped backwards, back out of the mist, and looked up into the open door of bar._

_YOU HAVE FIFETEEN MINUTES TO KILL ALL OF THEM._

_I walked forward, not trembling._

_I slipped into the bar, sliding my hand into my belt that a Dracon beam hung from, inside my pants._

_"You gettin' ready to strip down?" a bum slurred, sloshing his drink._

_I flashed Anna's beautiful white teeth, and tossed her red curls, and then pulled out the Dracon beam and shot him._

_Tssewww!_

_I don't remember clearly what happened afterwards, but I remember that there was no blood. I used the Dracon beam as they screamed and dove for cover._

_I killed them all._

_All, except for one man, who looked terrified, terribly alone in a bar where even the bartenders had disintegrated._

_"Please don't kill me," he begged._

_My father would have never pleaded the same._

_I aimed my Dracon beam at him and fired, but no lancing red beam came out._

_Shoot. It was out of energy._

_Oh well. I would milk this for all it was worth._

_I strode towards him as he cowered, and spoke to him._

_"I leave you alive so you can tell them that Anna the Avenger has returned."_

_I watched as he got up and raced past me, and then I reached up to the fuse box and opened it, messing with the wiring so a short circuit would start._

_When the electrons were running good and hot I found a lit cigar and touched it to the box._

_WHAM!_

_The pressure through me backwards as the fuse box exploded and the cigar went up in flames and as the flames licked up the wooden paneling, devouring the curtains..._

_Just like it devoured my mother._

_I turned and fled, not caring where I was going, knowing that I was sick with the knowledge that I wasn't sick about murdering.'"_

"Yeah, I remember that," Nora answered. "But what's the big deal?"

John leaned back, rubbing his chin. "Do you think maybe Princess Maya still has that C on her arm?"

Nora shrugged. "Maybe. I mean, she has to because she never killed that last guy."

"So she still owes Crayak."

"John, I don't get what the deal is," Nora broke in impatiently. "What does this have to do with us, now?"

"I don't know," John finally admitted. "But it just struck me that she hasn't paid her debt yet. And… I don't know. Just a feeling, I guess."

John hated admitting it, because he never liked going on feelings and other gut instinct stuff that he mostly thought was dumb. And since Nora knew he thought that, he couldn't help but see a smile on her lips as she shrugged and turned back to her designs.

Frowning, he stared at the two sections. There had to be a connection. He just knew that somehow, this was important.

--

Jake glanced at his father, who was urging all three of them along. He wanted to ask about Zach and Tyler, but he had decided he was never going to speak to his father again if he could help it.

They had arrived at the refugee camp, which turned out to be the old valley the Animorphs had been stationed in during the war. And although it seemed like the entire city was there, it was still very orderly and prepared. There were stations to get blankets and food and even a really sleek looking computer set up that they were supposed to go register themselves in to get their rations.

His father shoved them into a spot in the grass and told them to stay put. "I'm going to register us and get us our rations."

"Since when did he care enough to do anything for us?" commented Loren wryly as soon as he was gone, and Jake agreed silently before thinking, is this what Tobias does? Reply silently, disagree silently, agree silently – live a life without a single word?

Tobias was standing there, smiling and Jake stepped over to him, tugging on his shirt. "What are you so happy about?"

Tobias bent down and tousled Jake's hair. "I'm still alive, right? I thought I was dead for sure once he found the RayGun."

Jake could practically hear Loren roll her eyes as she replied, "Yes, let's be grateful because he hasn't killed us. _Yet._"

His father returned at that moment, and the three children went back to being silent as he put out a single long blanket, and enough food for one person. Putting his stuff down on the floor, he looked up at Tobias.

"Tobias, you're spending the night in the woods," he ordered, and then sat down to begin eating. When it became obvious he had brought nothing for anyone else, Jake began edging to the computer to register himself but his father's glare stopped him.

"You either stay here, or you go with Tobias to the woods," he said coldly, and Jake faced him, hating him fiercely. His father obviously expected him to stay out of hunger, but he wouldn't abandon Tobias like that. He _wouldn't_.

Marching over, the seven-year-old grabbed Tobias hand, and then smiled to himself when Loren took his other hand. Glancing over his shoulder, Jake looked at his father who looked utterly unconcerned, focusing solely on his food.

"Let's go," Jake announced and the three of them marched over to the woods.

Ethan watched them go; making sure that he knew how to find them, if necessary. After all, tomorrow as Tobias' 18th birthday. Sure, he had lied to Tobias about that, but it was obvious that the boy knew that he was marked for death some time soon even though he didn't know the exact day. Telling Tobias his birthday was in a few days would make his death at dawn tomorrow that much more unexpected.

Loren had probably told him, Ethan reflected, but that didn't matter, because she was going to die, too. Not that Crayak had asked for that or anything, but because, she was, after all Timothy's daughter. And Jake could go too – he seemed to adore Tobias and that fact could get annoying if he witnessed Tobias' death. It would hurt Timothy to no end, and would be the perfect end to the last fifteen years of getting revenge on his half brother.

It had been a good idea not to register any of them. With his new toy, he could eliminate any evidence that they had even been here.

Laughing once more, Ethan gave a silent toast with his water bottle. To me, for my brilliance. And to Crayak for making this possible.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

_I watched Tobias as he pulled himself into a corner, obviously not sure what to do about the fact that neither Lisa nor I wanted him. But Naltoh was leaking impatience in my head so I turned and headed for the basement stairs. We were going to Tom, but first, we had a side visit to make._

_I headed down the steps into the basement, and a low groan greeted me. I glanced over at the young man I had tied up and then waited, lighting a cigarette. Would she come? I had trusted her on Naltoh's recommendation, and he had assured me the only thing she would want was the morphing power, and to get off of Earth. Too low in the ranks to actually get it, she had turned to Naltoh who had worked out a deal with me._

_She agreed to infest Timothy, and then bring him to me. In return, I would have a host waiting for her, one of the hundred traitors. I had already starved his Yeerk, Iscath, and all that remained was for her to come infest this boy, taking Iscath's spot and pretending to be him._

_And then Timothy would be mine._

_I heard my wife open the door upstairs, and then my brother's voice floated down to where Naltoh and I waited. She was here. With Timothy._

_Naltoh exuded excitement. (I told you we could trust her,) he told me and I smiled as well, eager and ready._

_Ethan's Memories_

Loren tossed over again, shivering, when she heard Tobias' steady breathing. Was he actually asleep? How could he sleep? The ground was kind of _hard_. Not to mention it was kind of _cold. _She could swear that this had to be at least the sixteenth time she had woken up.

"Tobias," she whispered, but Jake responded. "Let him sleep."

"I can't believe he's asleep," Loren returned. "I'm guessing you woke up too?"

"Yeah," Jake admitted. "I don't think either of us is used to living as hard as Tobias did."

Loren started to respond, when she heard Tobias gasp. Twisting around, she could see in the moonlight that his face was screwed up as if in pain and that he was murmuring something. Reaching over, she shook Tobias' shoulder. "Wake up, wake up, what's wrong?"

Tobias shot up, lifted his arms to guard his head, and automatically said, "I'm sorry, I won't do it again." Loren stared at him as he slowly lowered his arms, his embarrassment only just visible in the darkness.

"Sorry," he said, and this time she could hear his shame in his voice. "Habit, I guess."

"Sorry we woke you up," Jake responded. "But you looked like you were having a nightmare."

Tobias hesitated, and then nodded. "Yeah. Just… sometimes…"

"Sometimes, what?" asked Loren quietly, but Tobias turned to her.

"Hey, Loren, you remember that day when John called and _he_ got really mad at me?"

Loren nodded. How could she have forgotten?

"Well, he whispered something to you. And you looked confused. What did he say?"

"He told me that he had done this to my mother," Loren answered. "I still don't really get why he said that. I mean, he was choking me, and then he wants to talk about his wife? Confusing. What?" she said, directing the last word at Tobias, who was staring at her.

"He said that he had done this to your mother while he was choking you?" asked Tobias carefully. Loren nodded. "Why, does that mean something to you or something?"

"He said the same thing to me. While he was choking me."

"Wait a second," Jake put in. "You guys have the same mother? Wait, does that mean that Tobias, you're actually our full brother and not our cousin?"

Loren looked at Tobias, and then at Jake. "That is a weird idea, Jake… but… this is all weird. What could he possibly mean by that?"

"What I think is weird," a voice commented wryly in the darkness. "Is that there are three children in the woods by themselves, no blankets, no food, talking about how a man named _he_ chokes them on a seemingly regular basis."

Instantly Loren froze, and she saw that Tobias and Jake had stopped moving as well.

"Who are you?" Loren managed, and the voice chuckled. "Well, we'll leave introductions for later. How about you guys tell me who _he _is?"

There was a silence, and then Jake said carefully, "That might not be smart, you know? You might be working with him. Or you might tell the authorities, and then he'd kill us all."

"What would you say if I told you no mortal in this universe had any authority over me?"

"That's impossible," Jake responded immediately. "There is only one person in this universe to whom that applies, and if you are that person, you would not be here. So, either you are a megalomaniac, or you are the War Princess Maya of the Nadar."

The voice laughed softly. "You're Jake? You're pretty smart for pre-pubescent boy."

"How do you know my brother's name?" Loren asked, starting to lose some of her fear. The voice didn't sound like it was about to kill her, at least.

"I've been listening to you guys talk since Tobias woke up," the voice responded. "But for now, let's go back to Jake's analysis. I'm either a megalomaniac, or I am the War Princess. But either way, I'm dangerous, aren't I? I could kill you all where you stood."

"If you are Maya the Animorph," Jake said, "Then that would be true. If you're a megalomaniac, though, then this is just more proof of your megalomania."

"What's a megalomaniac?" Loren whispered to Tobias, not wanting to admit to Jake that she didn't know. "Someone who is crazy?"

The voice started to respond with, "It means someone…" when suddenly it died off and was silent for a moment. Frightened, Loren started to raise her head to see if she could see, when someone tackled her, pulling her to one side as a flashing light hit the spot where she had just been lying.

She gasped, and a hand went over her mouth and the voice hissed, "_Be quiet,_" before releasing her. She heard two sharp crunches, and then the voice said, "I think I've found your _he_, kids. Computer, soft light."

A glow made Loren squint, and she turned to see a heavy body – was that her _father_? – on the ground, with a woman who looked in her late thirties standing over him. The woman had blue eyes that gleamed in the light, and jet black hair that fell down over her shoulders in straight lines.

The woman was inspecting a gun, and then she looked up at Loren who was standing closest. "This gun is a Nadar Army issued RayGun. How did he get this?"

"He got it from me," Loren heard Tobias admit sheepishly from behind her. The woman prodded, "And where did you get it from?" but Tobias hesitated, obviously not wanting to get Nora in trouble.

"Tobias," the woman commanded, her voice suddenly strident, but still the same voice that they had heard in the darkness. "This is a serious matter. I need to know whether a Nadar gave it to you, or whether a Mayanite, period, gave it to you, or whether a Yeerk gave this to you, or whether we have a traitor who knew I was going to be here and gave it to you. So let me ask you one more time, _how did you get this gun._"

"A Mayanite named Nora," Tobias whispered, and Loren could sense his uneasiness. "Why?" the woman asked, and Tobias responded a little bit more loudly, "Because she knew that my uncle was abusive, and so she gave me the gun to protect myself against him."

Please don't be mad at Nora, Loren begged the woman silently, and almost as if she heard, the woman straightened up and relaxed the tension in her body. "Oh, if that's the case then it's no problem. I'll check with Nora to confirm your story, but for now I'm going to call one of my Nadar over to keep an eye on this guy. We'll try him first thing tomorrow for attempted murder."

The woman turned to go, and Loren called out impulsively, "Wait!"

She turned, and blue eyes met brown.

"Thank you," Loren said, intimidated by the fire behind the woman's eyes. "Thank you… you saved us from a lot. We…"

She smiled at Loren. "Well, I'm a maya at heart, what can I say. You're welcome. Now, I'd go and get registered. Sun is going to rise soon, and we're going to try this man, whoever he is, at dawn."

Then suddenly, the woman was gone, disappeared into the darkness among the pine trees so close they grew together to the sky. Jake let out a sigh next to Loren as another Nadar accompanied by glowing light appeared, obviously to watch over their father, and the three of them stumbled their way through the forest to where the valley clearing was.

When they reached the clearing, Loren turned to see that Jake's eyes were shining in the dark. "Wow," he breathed. "Wow. That was incredible."

"Who was she?" Loren wondered aloud, and stepped back when both Tobias and Jake stared at her. "What?"

"That was Maya the Animorph," Tobias responded slowly, and Loren stopped, and turned to look at her brother and her cousin with a stare that mirrored theirs.

--

"Bring the accused forward."

Jake watched, half convinced that this was a dream. Was this really happening? Was his father really going to be tried? In front of him? And this wasn't even an Earthling courtroom… it was going to be a military trial. Nadar trial.

The setting was familiar to Jake's Earthling eyes, but there were twists here and there that surprised him. A single judge, rank Aristh, and then himself, Tobias, Loren and Maya the Animorph were witnesses off to the left, and his uncle was to the judge's right. No lawyers.

"The accused is an Earthling," the judge began when his father had finally been seated. "And so under ordinary circumstances, would be extradited to an Earthling court. However, due to the Yeerk invasion, this section of Earth is temporarily ceded to Mayanite control, and is under the jurisdiction of Mayanite laws. As this is a military operation, the trial will take place as if trying a Nadar."

"I object," a voice called out from the crowd, and the people parted to let a young woman, girl, really, step through. "As Guardian of the Kyan, I object to trying this man, who is a Kyan, as a Nadar. This violates the law of the Nadar, to protect the Kyan at any cost."

"This man is not a Mayanite," the judge answered smoothly, "And so is not subject to the rights of a Mayanite."

The girl shook her head. "If he is to be subjected to the laws of Mayaneria, and the court systems of Mayaneria, he should also be subject to the rights of a Mayanite Kyan."

"Who is that?" Jake whispered, and then a moment later, Maya the Animorph responded. "That is Alexa. Guardian of the Kyan. She is present at every trial involving murder or rape and always speaks for the accused."

"Who gets to decide then, between the two of them?" Jake asked. "I mean, she's saying he should be tried one way, and the judge is saying another way. Who decides?"

"It's a tricky situation," Maya the Animorph admitted. Should he be thinking of her as Princess Maya? "Technically since this is a military operation, and I have the highest rank, I would get to decide which way to try him. However, since I'm also a witness, I've recused myself, which is the proper thing to do when you're the highest rank but also a witness."

"So what happens now?" Jake whispered back, hoping he wasn't breaking any protocols. "And is it okay if we talk like this?"

"It's fine," she assured him. "I do get some special privileges for being the War Princess of the Nadar, and one of them includes being able to ignore certain customs that aren't a matter of life or death. Such as talking quietly during a trial in order to explain to a genius seven-year-old what is going on."

Jake looked up to see if she was mocking him, but the Animorph was smiling. Her tone must always be wry then, he thought. I wonder why.

"And as for your first question, now they argue about it and one has to convince the other. Alexa almost always wins this round. In fact, for the trials I've judged, she's never lost."

"My logic is sound," Jake heard Alexa continue. "Right now, on this piece of land, the crime was committed. As you stated, this land is under Mayanite control and therefore all mortals on this land are temporary citizens of Mayaneria, and that includes this man. This man is a Kyan on Earth, and on Mayanaite soil, as this land for this moment is, he is a Mayanite Kyan."

"It's always so embarrassing whenever they use those words. Mayanite. Mayaneria," Jake heard Maya the Animorph murmur next to him. "But I was eighteen when they chose the names and I guess I let it go to my head then."

"Very well," the judge responded. "However, I maintain the right to declare this trial a military one in the case that the participants refuse to accept the norms of the Kyan," and Alexa nodded. Jake looked back at… at _Princess_ Maya in surprise. Yes, he _would_ call her Princess Maya. "That was fast."

"Yes," Princess Maya responded. "Alexa is very convincing. And we don't like to dally in our trials. We prefer them to be swift, especially if they are conducted by the military."

"In that case, I call upon a jury of this man's peers," the judge announced and curious, Jake twisted his head around to see who they would be. A Nadar in uniform was going around with what looked like a grocery store scanner, holding it up to a volunteer's head and waiting for something to flash on the screen it had on its back.

"Checking for Yeerks and or other parasites, and for any memory of the accused," explained Princess Maya, and Jake nodded, a feeling of excitement starting to bubble up inside of him. He was a witness in a trial, at age seven – they were going to take his word for it! – and what more, it wasn't an Earthling trial, but a Mayanite trial. Something new. Something special.

Twenty-one people were picked, and they were assembled in a semicircle in front of the crowd, facing the judge. All of them were Earthlings, and so some of them looked unsure about what they were supposed to do, but the judge explained next that their duties would be the same as if they were Earthling jurors. They all had to agree to convict him.

"I call the first witness up," the judge announced. "Tobias of Earth, please come forward."

Don't screw this up, Jake said to him silently, but smiled at him on the outside. Tobias definitely looked unsure about this trial, but Jake kept smiling, hoping to encourage him, and slowly his cousin made his way to the middle of the odd circle, still to the left of the judge, but facing the jurors.

"Tobias, please prepare for the memory copier," the judge ordered, and Tobias' face looked as confused as Jake felt. Memory copier? Well, of course. These Mayanites wouldn't depend just on spoken word. They would use technology, technology that could show perfectly what happened.

The same Nadar who had gathered the jury approached Tobias, and placed the scanner over his head. Jake watched as Tobias looked down at the ground during the entire procedure and then nodded grimly when the judge told Tobias to go back.

They repeated the same procedure four more times, once for each witness, and then once for his father. Then, a hologram about a foot tall sprang up in front of the jurors, with three figures that Jake instantly recognized as himself, his sister and his cousin.

Voices reached his ears, and he realized it was from the hologram, and they were replaying the conversation they had in the woods.

_Sorry… Habit, I guess._

_Sorry we woke you up. But you looked like you were having a nightmare._

The Nadar must use a type of technology that takes all of our viewpoints and centralizes them, Jake realized. So we can see a 3-D version the way a sixth witness would have seen it.

_He said the same thing to me. While he was choking me_.

Jake could see the jurors murmuring amongst themselves, and then noticed Alexa leaning in to speak to the judge. The judge nodded and then called out, "Jury, I advise you to remember that the accused is on trial for attempted murder, which was committed on Nadar soil, and charges of child abuse must be brought against him in an Earthling court, and are not the issue of this case."

_What I think is weird is that there are three children in the woods by themselves, no blankets, no food, talking about how a man named _he_ chokes them on a seemingly regular basis._

A fourth perspective had arrived, and Jake could see Princess Maya in the hologram. She had not been too far from them, and had actually been lying down while talking to them. The hologram did not mimic the darkness of the night, but rather showed them as they would have appeared in full light, and Jake found the lackadaisical position Princess Maya was assuming in the hologram, almost, well, _funny_.

"I look like such a slacker," he heard the Princess say, and he turned to smile at her, only to find that she was grinning right back.

_If you are Maya the Animorph, then that would be true. If you're a megalomaniac, though, then this is just more proof of your megalomania._

_What's a megalomaniac? Someone who is crazy?_

_It means someone…_

Jake leaned in, knowing this was the point that the jury would have to judge. His uncle suddenly appeared in the hologram, the RayGun in his hand, aimed and ready to shoot right at an unsuspecting Loren hologram. He also saw how Princess Maya stiffened, and then threw herself at his sister, yanking her out of her spot and saving her life, before moving on to attack his father, putting him out of action with only two well aimed kicks.

And in real life, she did that all in the dark, Jake marveled, leaning forward as voices started to come out of the hologram again.

_Tobias. This is a serious matter. I need to know whether a Nadar gave it to you, or whether a Mayanite, period, gave it to you, or whether a Yeerk gave this to you, or whether we have a traitor who knew I was going to be here and gave it to you. So let me ask you one more time, _how did you get this gun.

A couple of the Nadar snorted, and Jake even heard some outright laughs, and a few, "That's Princess Maya for you, all right."

_Thank you. Thank you… you saved us from a lot. We…_

Again Jake noticed the jurors stirring. They have sympathy for us, Jake realized. They can see all of Tobias' scars and cuts in the hologram. They know what we went through. And yet all my father is being tried for is attempted murder of his daughter. Not the years of hell he put Tobias through. Not for neglecting me and Loren, his children. He's being judged for one single action, one single second of his life. And yet, that single second may very well cost him his life.

The hologram ended, and the judge opened his mouth to speak when his father stood up and snarled, "Enough!"

Jake felt Tobias flinch beside him, but he kept his eyes straight on his father.

"Do not interrupt the court proceedings," the judge said quietly, but his father shook his head. "You think I won't be judged guilty after they saw _that_? And so, I'll admit it. Yes, I tried to kill her. I tried to kill all of them. And you know what? I'm still going to do that."

With a shock, Jake realized that his father was striding forward, a drawn knife in his hand. Jake blinked, and then watched in horror as the knife spun through the air, aimed directly at Tobias. He wanted to shout to his cousin to move, but just as the thought formed in his mind, the Princess had plucked the knife out of midair, had spun around and then suddenly there was a red gash across Tobias' uncle's throat.

He collapsed in the middle of the green, choking on blood coming out of his mouth, when a gray slug pushed out of its head - was that a _Yeerk_? Tobias thought instantly.

His uncle had been a _Controller_?

The Yeerk inched across the grass, and was picked up by Alexa, Guardian of the Kyan, who cradled it in one arm. She bent over to tend to his uncle, who had turned to look at Tobias.

"Forgive me," his uncle gasped, but Alexa shook her head at him. "Don't speak, you'll make it worse. Hold still and let me look at you."

Alexa bent over his uncle, hiding him from Tobias' view, and then after five minutes of tense silence, stood up. Tobias glanced around, almost hoping to see his uncle's dead body, but the man had a patch over his neck where his throat had been slit, and looked as if he were going to be okay.

"You're a Controller, then?" Princess Maya asked, inspecting the man. "Stupid of us not to check. Really stupid of us. I'm sorry for that - unless you're voluntary, and in that case, depending on why you're voluntary, I may or may not be sorry."

"I was not voluntary to any of his actions," the man said, his voice firm but soft at the same time. Tobias stared. It was his uncle, his uncle's voice, his uncle's body, but the words and the tone were so unfamiliar. What was happening? Tobias looked at the man's hands, and saw the same hands that had beaten him, starved him, tortured him. Had they really been under the control of another being?

"My voice," the man whispered. "I haven't used my voice on my own in fifteen years…"

His uncle's face turned towards him, and instinctively Tobias cringed. The man winced at that, and then whispered again, "Forgive me."

"For what?" Tobias heard Jake break in. "And who are you? Are you my father? Are you Ethan Tem? Or is that Yeerk Ethan Tem?"

The man grimaced, and then gestured at his body. "This is Ethan's biological body. But I am not Ethan. I am Timothy, his half brother."

Half brother. His uncle's half brother. Not his uncle. His… father?

"No," Tobias said suddenly, shaking his head. It couldn't be... how? It was impossible.

"I know," the man responded quietly. "It's a long story. I… I was infested by the Sharing near the end of the Animorph War. I am a police officer, and was convinced by some of my friends in the force that it would be a good thing to do. I remained a normal Controller, until the Yeerk pool was attacked and bombed by the Animorphs. At that time I was infested by a Yeerk not my own, and I only later learned that she was working with Ethan, and she had been sent by Ethan to infest me, to bring me to Ethan before all of us went to Tom to get the morphing power."

The man paused, and then continued. "After that… well…I had the morphing power. Ethan's Yeerk had the morphing power. Ethan had the morphing power. Ethan had me acquire him, his Yeerk acquired me, and then he acquired and morphed his Yeerk, and then infested me and had me morph to his body, this one. The Yeerk took my form, so he could escape from the Yeerks who were clearly losing by then, and the three of us became nothlits. And the Yeerk Ethan sent to get me… she went off in the Blade Ship."

"That's not a very believable story," the Princess broke in. "We'll mind scan you later to make sure, but Ethan must have had a really good reason to want to become a Yeerk nothlit, especially at the end of the war when everything was blowing up and going the wrong way for the Yeerks."

The man stopped and then looked at the Yeerk still in Alexa's arms. "Do you have a place to put him where he can speak?"

Alexa nodded, and then a Nadar soldier stepped and presented a lavender-colored object shaped like a pencil box. She placed the Yeerk in it, closed the lid, and then an unfamiliar voice, but a very familiar tone spoke out.

"I should have stayed in you, _brother_," the voice spat, and the man who was his uncle bowed his head. "I should have known that they would patch you up instantly. Yeerk instinct, I guess, to leave your host as soon as the host is dying."

"Actually," the Princess broke in mildly. "The reason Alexa stepped in to heal Timothy, as he claims his name is, is because he was obviously a Controller since you crawled out of him. You interrupted a military trial in order to murder a participant in the trial, and the law says that if a participant in a trial, during a military operation, attempts successfully or not either rape or murder, that person is to be executed summarily by the highest ranking officer. Those who do not wait for justice are not given justice either. So after we get to the bottom of this, if you were the one who took control of this man's body to try to kill Tobias, I will shoot you, since I am the highest ranking officer present."

There was a short silence, and then the Yeerk responded. "It doesn't matter anymore. I've already failed. Tobias is alive, and there is no way for me to kill him now, and I can't use Timothy's body to do it, which is what I really wanted to do. It would have been the perfect finale, right, Timothy? After all you did to your son; it would have been your hand that stabbed him to death."

"Tobias," the man said again. Timothy. His… father… but how? Why? Tobias stared at the man, stared at his eyes which filled with concern, and… shame, yes, shame. What was going on? "Forgive me," he was saying again. His uncle never spoke like that. Could it be true? He turned to look at Loren, and she met his dumbfounded gaze, and then they both turned back to the Yeerk and the man, their faces demanding an explanation.

"I guess we should start from the beginning," Timothy said slowly. "Ethan… is my half brother. We share the same father, but I was born to a prostitute who gave me to my father. He and his wife, my stepmother, who raised me as if I were her own son, and Ethan and I were a family."

The man stopped, and then turned to the Yeerk. His uncle?

"Why," Timothy asked, his voice controlled but with a hint of desperation in it. "Why, Ethan?"

"It's interesting to hear you talk to me, now, you know," the Yeerk, his uncle said. "I haven't heard you say anything to me for the last fifteen years that wasn't you pleading with me to stop doing something to your son."

Timothy turned to look at Tobias, and Tobias turned away, his face down, his usual position. Could it be true? His father had been captive inside his uncle's body this entire time, his uncle in his father's head, controlling his every movement? But why?

"The story continues," his uncle started, the sneer in his voice evident even through the technology. "Our old man, hell, even my mother, thought more of you than they ever thought of me. It was always Timothy, this, Timothy, that. Why can't you be more like your brother Timothy, he never gets in any trouble, Ethan, why can't you do this, why can't you do that, like Timothy. So when our old man makes his will and leaves everything to Timothy, I get a little pissed."

"Our family was quite wealthy," Timothy said. "And when our father made his will, he made me the sole inheritor of everything. Ethan killed him, and I arrested him, and had him jailed. In prison he was infested by the Yeerks, and then his Yeerk forced him to kill his lover. He blames me for that."

"And I got fifteen sweet years of revenge," his uncle responded. "How did you like it, Timothy? Did you like beating up on your son? I enjoyed the screaming you did in my head, to tell you the truth. Absolutely powerless. You know that was how I felt when he made me kill Kristie? If it weren't for her Highness, the Princess here, I would have already made you go through the exact same thing."

"You already made me go through the same thing," Timothy shot back, with a hint of anger in his voice. "You told your Yeerk to have me kill Becky. I pushed her into the Yeerk pool with my own hands, and then ran as the bomb exploded, murdering her. But that wasn't enough for you, was it?"

Becky? Who was she?

"Who is Becky?" Tobias heard Loren whisper, and then the man Timothy turned to look at her. "Your mother," he responded. "You… you look just like her."

Loren's mother? Not Tobias' mother? Wait, what was going on?

"You and Loren aren't cousins, you know," Timothy said, probably noticing the confused expressions on their faces. "You're sister and brother."

"How sweet," his uncle snapped, but Tobias could tell that Timothy wasn't paying attention, but was rather looking at them. Him and Loren. Sister?

He turned a shy glance to Loren, and found that she was looking back at him as well, her eyes starting to well up with tears. "I'm not his daughter," she whispered, and knelt, looking at the man Timothy. "I'm not your daughter. Well, I am yours… but I'm not his daughter. He's my uncle."

Tobias could feel people's eyes on his face, and hating it, he looked down at the ground once more. Sister. Loren was his sister.

"I loved you, Ethan," he heard, and Tobias looked up to see Timothy looking at his uncle, the Yeerk. The Yeerk made a disgruntled noise, and then growled, "Don't say that to me."

"But I did," was Timothy's firm response. "You know it's true. You've taken the memories from my mind, and you have your own memories from when we were kids together. But Ethan… why did you start hating me? We… you… were my brother, Ethan. We did everything together. But I remember, middle school started for me and suddenly you couldn't stand to be near me. We fought more then and in high school than we ever fought before. Why, Ethan? What happened?"

The Yeerk was quiet, and then it started speaking, using a tone that Tobias had never heard his uncle use before. "Your mother wasn't a whore, Timothy. Or she wasn't just anyone's whore. She was our father's whore. I found that out, just as you started middle school. I discovered our father had a lover, as you called it. He went back to her, over and over again. They had a daughter, you know? You had a full sister, before I killed her, at least. They still haven't convicted me for that."

Timothy appeared stunned. "But… he always told me that he had only known my mother that one night, and then nine months later she had shown up with me. You mean… he had known who she was? I… could have known who she was?"

"That's right, Timmy-boy. He kept going back to that black whore of his, your mother. And you know what that did to _my_ mother? And yet how she still loved you. She couldn't see that you signified everything wrong about our family. A bastard son inheriting everything and the mother loving her stepson more than her real son? Why do you think I killed him?"

"I thought it was about the money," Timothy responded in a whisper. "All this time… I thought it was the money."

"What did you do with the money?" his uncle asked in grunt, a note of curiosity in his voice. Timothy shook his head. "I gave it to charity. It was blood money, and I didn't want money that my father been killed over." His voice strengthened though, and then he said, "But still, Ethan… the things you made me to my children… you had no reason. You had _no reason_. You could have done anything to me, and I would have borne it, but to use me to hurt them…"

Timothy paused for a moment, and then said again, the desperation more clear now in his voice, "I loved you, Ethan."

His uncle also was silent before he quietly started. "It's your fault, Timothy, that Kristie is dead. It's your fault that I was the one who killed her. You know we had a daughter together, Timothy? You know my first Yeerk made me rape her, and then kill her too? A six-year-old girl. That's why I made you rape your son when he was six as well."

Tobias felt a flush rise in his cheeks and he instantly looked down. He had never told that to anyone. Ever. Not even Jake. And now, to have it tossed aloud so casually…

"Look up," his uncle said, the mocking tone so bitterly familiar. "Look at Loren and Jake's faces."

Unwillingly, but out of long habit, Tobias obeyed, dreading the pity and horror he knew would be in their eyes, when the man Timothy spoke up. "You don't have to, Tobias."

The voice was his uncle's still, and so Tobias was able to drop his eyes down, grateful. He wouldn't have to face his shame just yet, but he knew his uncle wasn't done yet. He glanced to look at the man Timothy, and then saw his face was also full of shame, the man's eyes downcast.

"You're pathetic together," his uncle sneered. "Father and son. What a fine pair. Timothy screaming and begging me to stop in my head, and Tobias screaming and crying in my ears. I told both you and Tobias that Tobias took after you."

"And so we all take after each other, no?" Timothy responded. "You had a lover, just like our father. And Zach and Tyler… where will they go now? Back to their divorced mother whom they haven't seen in over eight years? Broken families beget broken families. Our grandfather committed adultery too, and so did his... Becky and I… we wanted so badly to break free from that…"

"I doubt Tobias will ever have a family," his uncle said, "And Loren will probably be the one who cheats. Oh, yes, I made sure she would turn out to be the slut she is. You hated that too, didn't you. Although I have to admit, it was the most fun when I was pounding into Tobias and you were pleading with me to stop, promising anything. You know what helplessness is now, Timothy. But it doesn't even matter anymore. I'm dead, we all know it."

"Why did you pick my children?" Timothy asked quietly, and his uncle returned, "Actually, to tell you the truth, this being named Crayak gave me the idea. He showed up with the Animorphs, remember reading about him? Apparently he really wanted to make sure your son, and specifically your son, suffered. I came up with the idea of using your body, since I honestly couldn't care less about that brat except for as a way to get even with you. I wish I could have killed him, though, that would have really made it perfect. Crayak never told me why your son, though, and I'd like to know why, but I guess I never will."

"Ethan…"

"Timothy," his uncle said, his tone suddenly serious. "Timothy, this is what justice looks like. You and I… we were brothers. But you betrayed me. You turned me in. You should have just stayed quiet and split the money with me. But because of you, Kristie and my daughter - both dead. What I did to you was nothing more than what you deserved."

"Enough," Princess Maya broke in. "This is enough. We are not here to hear hate-filled ramblings. I want these two mind scanned, and then I'm going to execute Ethan if their stories are true."

Tobias watched quietly as mind scanners were brought out and used, and then as the two brother's stories were confirmed. Inside though, his mind was swimming and spinning out of control. His father… his father… sister… Crayak… and what about Jake…

"Last words?" the Princess asked his uncle. "I'm going to pull you out, put you on the ground. Count to five and you'll be dead."

"I hope you have a miserable rest of your life, Timothy."

And again, Timothy responded, even more quietly this time, "I loved you, Ethan."

Tobias watched in horrid fascination as the Princess pulled out the Yeerk, unable to believe that was actually his uncle. His uncle was the man who was seated on the ground before them, not this tiny thing now on the ground. And yet… could it be? Maybe he was going to be free… Maybe… maybe the Yeerk actually was his uncle. Tobias knew his uncle's tone, he knew the kind of things his uncle would say. And the Yeerk was saying all those things.

The Princess was pulling out a RayGun, and it was pointed at the Yeerk… his uncle, and then Tobias watched as the laser disintegrated _him_ completely.

He gasped, let the air out, and then fell to his hands and knees, breathing heavily. Gone. His uncle was gone. Dead. Never could hurt him anymore. But… he was still there, his body. Looking at him.

"Tobias…" his uncle's voice said.

"I'm sorry," Tobias responded in a whisper. "I… I can't. You… look like him. You…"

"I understand," his uncle's voice said softly when suddenly Jake broke in. "What about me? Whose son am I? His? Loren gets to be free, but what about me?"

Tobias saw Timothy turn to look at Jake. "Ethan was in my head when I slept with your mother, Jake, and so although this body is Ethan's biological one, it was my mind in this body that was there when you were conceived."

"So I'm your son, then?" Jake demanded, his eyes flashing. Timothy opened his mouth and said, "Jake, to be honest, after you were born, I asked Ethan whose son you were, mine or his. He responded, 'If he helps me hurt Tobias, he's my son, if he tries to help Tobias, he's your son.' You chose me, Jake, and so I am proud to call you my son."

Tears were welling up in Jake's eyes as well, and then he took a step forward towards the man, before glancing back at Tobias and Loren, catching their eyes. "This is a little strange for all of us," Jake said, turning back. "You… you hurt us a lot. And… it's hard…"

The man nodded. "I understand."

Jake took another step, and then another. "But… you have his body, but it doesn't matter, right? Because you aren't him. You aren't."

Another and another and then Jake was running and Timothy lifted him up and held him close, both of them shedding tears in silence. Tobias looked at Loren, who was also crying, and then wondered, why am I the only one not? He turned to hear Timothy say softly, "Thank you for being there for Tobias. You… you eased my heart more than I can say."

"Father," Tobias heard Loren call brokenly from beside him. "Dad… Daddy… I… I'm sorry…"

But Timothy was gesturing her forwards, and she too ran to him, her arms out. The man held her as well, and she cried into his shoulder, as he told her, "I was so happy when you came to support Tobias. I knew you would be afraid, but… you became my true daughter that day."

My turn, Tobias thought numbly, but he still couldn't move. He could see Loren there, and Jake, but the man was still his uncle. Still his uncle's face, still his uncle's hands, still his uncle's voice.

"Fifteen years," Tobias started suddenly. "Fifteen years," he repeated, gathering speed. "You beat me. You starved me. You humiliated me. You tortured me. You know what you _did _to me? I was like a dog to you. You'd spill something on the ground, you'd make me lick it up off the floor. You used me and then lent me out to your friends like I was a movie. I make a single wrong step, say something you didn't like, _breathe_ the wrong way, and you'd be beating me with a stick, kicking me on the floor."

The pain in the man's eyes was evident as Tobias continued. "And you. His other half. My father. Where were you when he hurt me? Why didn't you help me?" he almost shouted, trying to keep his tears at bay, knowing he was being irrational. "Why didn't you stop him? Are you or are you not my father?"

"Tobias, do you know how hard it is to fight the control of a Yeerk?" Jake started, but Tobias cut him off, slashing at the air with his arm. He could feel fifteen years of anger build up inside him, fifteen years of suppressed emotion that was screaming like a howling demon, demanding that it be let out. He saw Loren's eyes widen, and he knew what she was thinking. Since when did Tobias show anger? Since when did Tobias show any feeling at all? Well, he would show them he was not that Tobias any longer.

But there was another still quiet voice inside him that warned caution, and begged him to stop. Don't be your uncle, it whispered. Your uncle hated and feared his father, and he blamed your father. You hate and fear your uncle - don't blame your father for that.

What you went through, he went through three times as much. It hurt him so much to have to hurt you, to be forced to hurt you. It hurt him because he loves you, and he didn't want to hurt you. He loves you.

And he's gone through enough.

Tobias stepped forward, the tears finally coming. "Daddy…"

Then he was in his father's arms, with gentle hands, hands he knew now would never be raised against him in anger. "Daddy," he said, and he heard his father say again, "Forgive me," but Tobias shook his head. "Nothing to forgive." And they wept together, father and son, both broken from hatred passed down from generation to generation, but together now, finally free.

The smoke from the campfire rose to the pale morning sky as Tobias' father lightly traced the scars on his son's face and whispered, "Happy Birthday, Tobias."


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

_Dear Diary,_

_We're in Somolonania now, the four of us. Dad, Tobias, Jake and me. We live in the same floating village as Nora and John, and we're starting school with them in a few weeks too._

_Sometimes I still can't believe that I'm here on another planet when just a few months ago, just a year ago, I never even thought of leaving Earth. But then again, I can't believe that I have a father who actually loves me and who is kind of obvious about it._

_It was awkward at first, I have to admit. He looked so much like… well, my uncle, I guess, and I know even though at first it was just a relief and I didn't care, it was still a little strange. But a few days ago he got a nothlit cure. Nora told me that's when they inject you with someone else's DNA, and it goes through your body like a virus, almost, morphing your body to match the new DNA. They use it on nothlits who accidentally get stuck in bodies they don't want, and you're still a nothlit afterwards but you have the body you want, at least._

_It's a lot easier now because Dad doesn't look like him anymore, but it's still sometimes strange, in a nice way though. Like, he takes care of us so much, and he doesn't let Tobias do any chores or anything at all. Tobias likes cooking though so they finally agreed to cook together, but like, I had to do so much for myself back on Earth but now I'm here and I have clothes that Dad got for me, and we're living in a house that Dad arranged for and it's just a cool kind of weird to actually have a father now who takes care of us._

_Sometimes I still feel badly because I should have helped Tobias more back on Earth, but Dad and Tobias told me that he arranged things so I would feel that way, and I shouldn't blame myself because that's what he would want. The way John put it makes sense too – he told me that regretting doesn't do anything, but that I should realize my mistakes from the past and decide never to make those same mistakes again, and that I should always look forward instead of looking at the past._

_And so that's the promise I'm going to make to myself here. From now on, I'm going to be the best sister Tobias could possibly have, and also the best older sister to Jake, and the best daughter to Dad. This is my chance to start over, and I'm going to make sure from now on that I'm the kind of person that I like being._

_Love, Loren_

_P.S. You know something weird? I found out from Dad that the reason he never let us into his private bathroom was because he used the bathtub as a Yeerk pool to go to every three days. I was like… wow. All these years I was complaining about having to share a bathroom with three boys, and I find out the reason why… it makes me feel kind of stupid for complaining, you know? I guess I'm learning to have some perspective on things. That's what Jake says at least. And you know what? I really don't mind._

Crayak watched her, the black-haired woman with blue eyes that shone with a fiery peace, and marveled, still not quite understanding how everything had happened the way it did. He had had no doubts about Maya, and in fact, had almost dismissed her after saving her life when she had crash-landed on Earth. He had known she was going to become a Nadar, and so had paid her no heed, expecting her to turn to him in a moment of despair. He had sometimes dropped in on her life, keeping her on the path of the Nadar, but for the most part had left her alone.

When she was made a prisoner on the Blade Ship, and tortured for nearly a month – now that was when he had paid the most attention to her. But to his surprise, she had continued to stand firm, not breaking, and continuing to hope and believe in life, and he hadn't understood why. Wasn't she a Nadar? Hadn't she been baptized in blood? Hadn't she tasted the fierce and unhappy joy that came with indulging herself in death?

Even after she had renounced the ways of hatred, he still had hoped that she might come to him. Even after she changed what it meant to be a Nadar. Even after she forgave the Andalite who had killed her brother – even after she married him.

He still had a hold on her, he knew that much. She still owed him one life. He waited and watched, knowing that if she knew that out of all the people she had killed in the bar that night, the one she had let free had been the one who had killed her adoptive father... she would be faced with a hard, hard choice. Let herself go back to the ways of vengeance and kill the man? Or be forever branded as one of Crayak's debtors?

And then… even without realizing it, she had executed the man. Not in anger or in cold blood or in any way of the Nadar, but as an officer following the laws of her people. She had been freed from Crayak, and had sidestepped his last test, without even realizing it.

Crayak couldn't leave until he spoke with her. Until he understood why, and how. Maya… she had been so like him, but then, in a single night, had changed forever. Before he left… he needed to speak with her.

So he sent the rolling gray fog that he sent to greet all of his fellow Nadar, and then watched as she paused, patient, waiting for Crayak to reveal himself.

LITTLE NADAR.

He saw her smile, and he wondered at her response. Before she had become the Andalite and Elemaki goddess of peace, she would have been furious at the title, spitting and cursing at Crayak. But now, she only smiled, and waited.

"Yes?"

Suddenly he was ashamed of his booming presence, knowing that it no longer intimidated her. This was not the way things were supposed to go – and yet, wouldn't it be fitting? For her to see who he really was. For her to understand that she had been meant to follow his footsteps, and take his place.

He kept the gray fog, but then slowly, from his ancient memories, pulled out his first form. That first form that had changed shape and body and mind and soul but never spirit. And he saw Maya's eyes widen as a young human boy appeared out of the mist and faced her.

Now Crayak was looking at her, straight into those blue eyes that were Rachel's, and he was also smiling. A sad smile, not a triumphant one, and then he spoke.

"Maya," he started, using a voice that he had not used since he had left his original universe. "Maya, what would you be like if you had never met Eun-hee? Or if you had, and she betrayed you? If Oscar had left you? If Anna had hated and despised and feared you? If Helen and her husband had scorned you? If the Animorphs had rejected you? If you had broken to the torture on the Blade Ship and sought to live only to kill those who harmed you? Maya, tell me. What would you be like?"

He saw the flash of understanding that came to her eyes, and then the compassion that followed as she answered slowly, "I would be like you, wouldn't I?"

Silence passed between the two Nadar, and Crayak said softly, "Maya… you and I… are not so different. You are the Great Nadar and I am the First Nadar, and all that separates us are those humans who loved and kept on loving you even as you continued to burn with hatred."

"What is your name?" Maya asked suddenly, in the pause that followed, and startled, Crayak turned to look at her. His name… oh, it was ironic. Everyone in this universe who had heard of Maya knew his name, and some spoke it with fear and others with joy, but no one knew that it was his name. Not even Maya knew, and it was she who had made it famous.

"Nadar," he responded. "My name is Nadar," and the bitter sense of longing that had consumed him his entire long life filled him once more. Nadar. That was what he was, throughout every galaxy, and in this universe and his original one. Nadar.

She looked startled, but then that same sad smile came to her lips, and she asked, "Why?"

There were a thousand answers to that question, and he shook his head, not willing to answer. Instead he looked up at her and said, "Maya… I am leaving. The Ellimist and I… Toomin and I… we are leaving. We are leaving this universe forever."

"Why?"

Again, why. Why, why, why. Sometimes he felt that even he didn't know. But there was still an answer that he could give.

"Tobias… he was our last game. When Toomin first picked out the Animorphs, Tobias Fangor's life was to be equivalent to Tobias Tem's. But Toomin bargained with me, and asked to exchange Tobias Fangor's life with Tobias Tem's. We both knew that if Tobias Fangor had gone through what Tobias Tem went through, the Animorphs would have lost, because Tobias Fangor would have been too broken. So Toomin made a bet with me – exchange their lives, and if Tobias Tem continued to stay strong, continued to believe in life and never give in to despair… then all would stay as it was, and we would leave this universe forever, never to play another game. But if Tobias Tem gave up, then their lives would switch and the Animorphs would lose, and the Yeerks would win, and all of this universe would eventually be conquered by them."

He saw Maya take that in, and saw how she accepted it, with gratitude for Tobias who had suffered and with awe at his words. Yes, it would be hard for even the Great Nadar to accept all that went on in Tobias Tem's life. But that was also where they differed – the First Nadar could accept it easily.

"Nadar," Maya suddenly called out, and he stopped, frozen. How many light years had it been since someone had called him that?

"Nadar, don't forget, that there is always hope. There is always another chance. Until you let yourself die in your despair – until that last moment, there is always freedom waiting for you to turn to her."

He gave her a soft smile, and then whispered, "Creator's Blessings, Maya, War-Princess of the Nadar," before he turned and let his body disappear into the mist. Back in his familiar form in space, he rolled away the fog and then with a single backwards glance at the girl he wished he could have been, he left, never to come back.

--

Tobias knelt, smoothing the dirt of the garden with his hands as he breathed in the scent of growing, living plants. Every single Mayanite household had a garden, it seemed, and it was one custom that Tobias took to instantly, enjoying being alone, and yet still close to home.

His life had changed so much since he had left Earth, and sometimes he still wondered at how a single day could wipe away everything he had ever known. How a single moment could give him a completely new life. And yet… there were still times, when he felt flashes of bitterness at what he had gone through on Earth. Times when he resented his old habits of deference, silence and obedience, knowing that they had been pounded into him by angry fists.

And especially after Princess Maya had told him about what Crayak had told her… oh, he was glad to know. Well, sometimes he was glad to know. Better to know that all his suffering hadn't just been due to a vengeful man unleashing random violence onto him, but that it had been for some purpose. And yet, at times he was filled with fury to think that his life could have been different from the one he held now. That his life could have had the same magnitude of pain as Tobias the Animorphs' had, which was, when compared to his life, a walk in the park.

"They told me I would find you here."

An unfamiliar voice, and Tobias instantly leapt to his feet, backing away, his arms already lifted to defend himself. Embarrassed, he dropped them, hating his uncle once more, and then looked up to see concerned blue-green eyes in a young man's face.

The man ran his fingers through his dirty-blond hair, and then said, "Tobias… Maya told me about the Ellimist and Crayak's deal and… I came here to thank you. I… I know you paid a high price, and you let me live my life without nearly as much suffering as you lived yours. And… I thank you for that. I had a taste of what it was like to have no one care for you, to be neglected and unwanted… and you saved me from so much more."

Tobias stared, and then rubbed his hands together, trying to get rid of the dirt. Not sure of what to say – after all, it wasn't like he had exactly chosen to exchange lives, and so all this thanking business was a little awkward – he blurted out, "Hey, we're cousins, right?"

The Animorph laughed, and then nodded. "Yes, we are. And, if you like, you could come meet my mother. She probably has stories about when your mother was young – she told me they were very close when they were young."

Tobias smiled slowly, still trying to absorb everything that the Animorph was saying, and still not being able to help but feel angry about it. No, it wasn't Tobias the Animorph's fault, but to learn that he could have had his life, that some being in the galaxy who probably didn't even know his name had exchanged theirs… no one had asked Tobias, no one had even acted like he should be anything but grateful that he had what he had now.

It wasn't that he wasn't grateful – in fact, he was practically in love with the fact that he was not on Earth any longer. But… everything he had gone through… and it wasn't even the past that bothered him, it was the fact that his uncle still lived in his every action, his every word, every habit. No matter how hard he tried, all it took were footsteps, a harsh tone – and he jumped up to shield himself from harm. Every time he looked in the mirror, he saw his scars and remembered clearly how he got each one.

His uncle would never die as long as Tobias was alive, and Tobias wasn't sure that making Tobias the Animorph's life easier had been worth going through what he had gone through.

Tobias opened his mouth to say it was nothing, to be polite, to bow his head, when he noticed that Tobias the Animorph had frozen in place, his eyes unblinking. Looking around, he saw that the other people in the village walkway had always stopped moving, all of them holding perfectly still. What was going on?

"Tobias," a voice whispered, and he whirled around to see an old blue man with wings hovering over his garden. Ellimist, his mind thought, recognizing him from the descriptions in the Animorph's records, but he said nothing.

He stayed very still, in fact, and instead listened as the Ellimist said, "Watch, Tobias. And tell me what you see."

Suddenly there was no one there, only him, on a bare and rocky planet. Looking up, he could still see the purple mountains of Somolonania – wait a moment, was he still on the planet? What had happened to the people? To the land, to the trees, to the grass? To the life that was living just a few moments ago?

Another flash and Tobias was on another planet, and he could tell just by feeling that it was Earth. But he saw the same devastation, the same empty coldness that he had felt on Somolonania. What was the Ellimist doing?

Again and again and Tobias, without moving at all, found himself on planet after planet, each of them ravaged, some still with hating, fearful survivors, others with slaves that cried out in despair. His eyes widened and his mind whirled, and then when he felt he could bear it no longer, he found himself back in his garden on Somolonania, a frozen Tobias the Animorph just where he had been.

"That is what was avoided, Tobias, when you took the Animorph's pain and suffering for yourself."

Tobias stared at the Ellimist, and then blinked, suddenly realizing that there were tears in his eyes. How… how had the Ellimist known? How had he known that this was his burden, his fear, that all his life, everything he had gone through – that it hadn't been worth it? Tobias knew that if only he could be sure that he indeed had made a difference… then no matter what, he could willingly put his past aside as a sacrifice.

And as if the Ellimist had heard his words, the being said, "Your sacrifice, Tobias, saved the entire universe. Your pain was the pain of a million sentient beings, and the blood you spilled was theirs."

There was a pause, and then the Ellimist said, "I knew your name, Tobias, and I watched you, and I wept for you."

Tobias could feel the tears coming quickly, and he bowed his head, overcome. Pulling himself together, he looked up at the Ellimist, who said quietly, "Tell Maya that I said goodbye," and then he was gone, and Tobias was talking to Tobias the Animorph once more.

"Tobias, you okay?" he heard the Animorph ask him, and then Tobias smiled, a true smile for the first time in his life. Yes. I am okay. I am finally okay.

He could feel the breeze on his skin, and the sun's rays gently touching his face, and he looked over at his garden, the tiny plants fighting through the dirt to breathe freely the air that was all of theirs to share. Keep struggling, he told them silently. Don't ever give up. Life… life is always worth it, in the end.


	9. Epilogue

Epilogue:

_A/N: This chapter is not a part of Toomin's Last Game in the sense that it does not really complete or bring any closure to this story, which stands by itself without the epilogue. However, I really wanted to write about their new lives in Somolonania, and perhaps give a hint at where each of them end up, and so I decided to write this epilogue, as a sort of "Adventures in Somolonania" appendix. There are six sections, and each of them is separate, and they are only linked chronologically. This is more me indulging my desire to write about the culture and people of Mayaneria than me actually working on making the writing up to par, but for what it's worth, I hope you enjoy it!_

_One note: I don't own the concept of Speaking for the Dead, regrettably so, since it's an incredibly cool concept. Orson Scott Card owns it._

Appendix A: A Few Weeks Later

"So, Loren, what would you like to talk about? I'm sorry for being abrupt, but you haven't yet programmed me so I don't quite know what your interests are."

Loren blinked several times, and gave a half moan before turning over onto her stomach and curling up. It was so nice to have her own bed. Have her own room. Granted, it wasn't that big since nobody in Mayaneria seemed to do anything inside their houses but sleep, but still… after sharing a room with her brother for as long as she could remember, she appreciated the privacy.

"Loren?"

This talking bed business though… she still hadn't gotten used to.

"I like sleep," she murmured. "Sleep is good."

"Yes, I have gathered that from our previous conversations. However, whenever I try to engage you in conversation about sleep, whether it be about lack of sleep, or REM cycles, or all of the above, you never seem very interested. I'm here to talk to you about what you are most interested, so you can wake up excited for each day."

"I am excited," she responded, unwillingly beginning to wake up. "It's just that… well, we took the exams a few weeks ago, and we've been doing nothing since then. It's very nice not going to school."

"But school starts today, you know that?"

Loren shot up in her bed, and then frantically looked around, Earthling habit making her look for someone's eyes to meet. When she realized once more that her bed was not a person talking to her, she pulled herself out from under the covers. "You're joking, right? Nora said it was starting tomorrow!"

"No," the bed responded. "Didn't you know? Today is orientation day. I suppose to Nora and John orientation day is not very important since they have been living on this planet for most, if not all of their lives, but to you, it actually is quite important."

Loren opened her mouth to respond when a singsong voice called through the speaker. "Loren, it's me, wake up, I forgot to tell you that it's orientation day today!"

"Come in!" Loren called back, and then automatically turned to her wall, expecting a wardrobe to appear. When she realized once more that people in Somolonania did not use closets, she sighed and sat back down on her bed as Nora danced in.

"Okay," Nora started. "First, clothes. I have Mayanite clothes for you, and I also designed something else for you yesterday, and I think you will like it. It looks kind of like some of the Earthling clothes you like to wear. It'll tell people that you're a FOS - do you mind?"

Loren shrugged. "I don't know what a FOS is so…"

"Fresh Off the Spaceship," Nora supplied. "But there are lots of FOS, especially now with the Nadar cleaning up the Yeerks on Earth. Lots of refugees. So, anyway, here's the Mayanite clothes."

Loren watched as Nora pulled out her arm to look at her computer bracelet. The girl did something, tapped something, and then all of a sudden a full hologram of a robe with dazzling colors and patterns was in the room with them. Loren blinked again, and then shook her head.

"Nora, it's a robe."

"Yeah, it is a little fancy," Nora admitted, and Loren half smiled. Nora obviously didn't get what Loren's problem was.

"Can't I just wear Earthling clothes?"

Nora sighed. "Fine, fine, I knew you would want to. Here, I used the same pattern in a shirt and skirt for you, like the Earthlings. You'll stand out like a FOS, I'm telling you."

Nora tapped something again, and then Loren saw a more familiar jean-like skirt, with a long shirt that had the same patterns as the robe. Nodding, she smiled, and said, "Thanks! But how…"

"Well, you have your shift, right?" Nora asked, and Loren nodded. In Mayaneria apparently everyone had a suit they called a shift that they wore all the time, sleeping and otherwise. It was made of material that clung to your body, but that you could barely feel, and sometimes Loren felt uncomfortable just wearing it because she felt as if she weren't wearing anything. Over it went holograms and soft forcefields of clothes that you designed by yourself, or bought designs for. When Loren had first learned that Nora designed clothes, she had been ecstatic – after all, Loren enjoyed dressing well and she would have loved to learn the Mayanite styles. However, after she realized that Nora used programming languages to code designs onto her computer… well, that just really wasn't Loren's thing.

"I'm going to beam this to your computer," Nora explained, "And then the screen will show up on your computer, and it'll guide you through how to set it up so you're wearing it."

Loren nodded, and then quickly followed the instructions, and found that she was wearing the same outfit that Nora had showed her just a moment ago. Smiling, she turned to try and find a mirror, and then realized that there wasn't one in her room.

"Use your computer, remember, Loren?" Nora said, watching her. "Your computer is everything. Has everything."

"Right," Loren muttered. "Computer, full length mirror," and then she smiled again as suddenly a hologram of a mirror appeared, but one that actually worked.

"Wow," she breathed, more in awe at the technology than at her appearance. Sure, the shirt was still a little weird, but at least she could feel it. Nora told her that John never used the soft forcefields but preferred just to wear holograms over his shift, if anything at all. Loren wasn't sure she could deal with wearing clothes she couldn't feel, especially with this shift of hers that she still sometimes had to touch to make sure it was there.

"Okay, ready?" Nora asked, and Loren nodded. The mirror disappeared, and then the two of them walked out of the room.

"Where is everyone?" Loren wondered aloud, and Nora said, "John took Tobias already to get the Somolonanian to wait, so we'll meet them at the Kyan Gate. I think your Dad is still talking to Animorph Marco about the Yeerk invasion – apparently your uncle was a big part of the second invasion. And Jake, well, he's already at the school to teach! Man, maybe he'll even be one of our teachers, wouldn't that be cool?"

Loren laughed. "It'd be weird, that's what it would be. I can't believe he aced those exams, and he's like seven years old. Wow. He's really a genius."

"Yeah, I know," Nora responded enthusiastically. "He knows more about Mayanite culture and history than even I know, and I was born here! I'm one of the Vampire Spider Children!"

"You're a Founder," Loren teased and Nora shook her head, smiling. "Oh, c'mon, I hate it when people call me that. I did nothing, just took up resources and was a three-year-old. It's like when people call John the First Kyan. He always responds, no, I was just the first kid. Except for when he wants something of course, and then he won't shut up about being a Founder and knowing Princess Maya personally."

The girls continued to banter, making their way out of the village, passing by other residents who Nora called out to by name. She stopped by a fruit seller and smiled, saying, "Creator's Blessings! First day of school, what do you have for us today, Sakura-xen?"

Sakura-xen grinned in response, and then replied, "Two credits each, you nyasha." Nora grinned back, took two pieces of fruit, and then told her computer, "Beam four credits to Sakura-xen," before bowing and towing Loren along with her.

"You don't have to pay for me," Loren started, tagging along, but Nora shrugged. "It's only two credits. And besides, I don't think you have any money."

"Well," Loren started. "I guess so. I mean, Dad is going to start working soon, but right now we're living off of Alexa's refugee checks."

Nora glanced at her friend. "You know, it's a little weird to call Alexa just plain Alexa when you don't really know her… I mean, I know it's just a custom and everything, but we're really big on titles, as you can tell. Like, Princess Maya we still call Princess Maya, Alexa is Guardian Alexa, stuff like that. Kids it's fine, but when you're an adult, unless you are family, you use a title."

"Wait," Loren started. 'Is that why you called that woman Sakura-xen? Because you use xen a lot after names, I've noticed."

"Yeah, it's just like Mr. or Ms. No gender, just a polite way to call them. After we finish our formal schooling I'm going to start calling you Loren-xen too."

Loren made a face. "But that's just weird. I mean, we're friends now, why would that change when we're adults?"

Nora shrugged. "I don't know. Ask John, he'll probably go into some in depth analysis about how children and adults are viewed very differently in Mayaneria, and so certain customs are in place that reflect that difference. I mean, I guess that's true – we have a coming-of-age ritual that you do after you finish your formal schooling, and a lot of stuff happens after you finish your formal schooling, actually. You can apply for a morphing license, you can apply for a marriage license, you can apply to live in a different village… lots of things."

The two girls made their way to the Kyan Gate, where Tobias and John were waiting for them. "Hurry!" John called out. "Lots of people here, we have to hurry." Loren picked up her speed, and then gaped when she saw the two-headed creature about the size of an elephant, rope rigging all over his body. People were clinging to the rope, and Tobias and John were two of those people, John gesturing wildly at them.

"Oh, man," Loren muttered. She still wasn't used to traveling by Somobus, but it was the most common method of travel for those who did not have a morphing license, that is, mostly children and teens. Hoverboards were also popular for kids among all ages, but they only worked while in the city and the villages – there was no grid from the villages to Rachelarem, and Somobus was also much faster.

She pulled herself up, Tobias helping her, and then Nora was next, talking to John, the four of them clinging to the rope. She shut her eyes as the Somolonanian roared, and then suddenly they were off, practically flying across the plains as she heard Tobias shout with delight, the wind whipping at his hair.

"Open your eyes, Loren!" she heard Nora call, and so she forced herself to look up, out at the landscape rushing past them, her fingers clinging tightly to the rope rigging. Only a few minutes passed when Rachelarem was in sight, and gratefully, Loren let go of the rope with stiff fingers, breathing heavily before turning to look at Nora with a wry smile.

"I don't think I'll _ever _get used to riding a Somobus," Loren said slowly, but Nora simply laughed and grabbed her hand. "C'mon, let's go for a swim and then grab some Somohol."

Alarmed, and not quite sure what Nora was talking about, Loren allowed herself to be pulled up into the Kyan Gate, and then she walked across the invisible pathway to the city. She had been here a few times, and always with Nora or John, but this was the first time she would be here to stay for longer than a few hours.

Rachelarem was made up of five rings, and the fifth ring road that they were in was usually quiet, full of houses of people who lived in the city. But this time, Loren could see and hear mothers and fathers getting their children ready for school, and teens her age either flying past on their hoverboards, or getting together to ride a Somobus further in. Nora tugged at her, and then suddenly she found herself on another Somobus, madly rushing into the city.

"First ring road," Nora announced to the other three. "Let's drop by the Pub after a dip."

She turned to look at her friend, and then smiled, before saying, "Hey, Loren, don't feel too overwhelmed, okay? You'll get used to it soon enough."

The girl nodded, and then Nora turned to look at Tobias, who looked like he was also experiencing some sort of cultural shock. Well, all Earthers went through this stage. Nora remember one recent Earther telling her that there was so much life, so much green and blue and people bustling and laughing and mad rushing that it was almost too much to handle. Even the cities, floating above the ground, were still green everywhere, the much beloved Andalaki plains transplanted onto the city and village's artificial ground.

And then there were the pools. Nora led the way straight towards one of Rachelarem's many pools, and then dove in without a second thought. Splashing happily, she gestured at Loren who looked horrified.

"C'mon, Loren!" she called. "This is the Mayanite version of a daily shower! There are thousands of bots cleaning this pool constantly, it never gets dirty, and your clothes are forcefields and holograms, so it's not like they get wet. And your shift is permeable – it was made for this kind of lifestyle!"

She heard a whoop and then her brother splashed in next to her, both of them calling to the Earthers. Nora could see that Tobias looked reluctant, but then he closed his eyes, grabbed Loren's hand, and the both of them plunged in.

Nora dove under the water, scrubbing at her hair, letting the cleansing liquid clean her entire body, knowing that the bots were keeping everything around her and on her uncontaminated. Loren and Tobias would get used to it, yet.

A few minutes later she pulled herself out, and ordered, "Computer, bot brush." Her computer obligingly produced a forcefield made robotic brush that would self comb her hair and dry it. Nora placed it in her hair and forgot about it, her shift dry and her clothes never having gotten wet.

"Wow, that is really cool," she heard Loren say from beside her, and then she turned to teach Loren how to create a bot brush as well, and soon the two girls were walking towards the Pub, both of their hair dry and combed. Nora forced both Tobias and John to bot brush their hair, and Loren smiled at the pained expression on John's face as Nora insisted, "John, today is the first day of school. You don't have to brush your hair any other day, but at least today, brush your hair, wear something more than just your shift. Okay?"

Loren looked around, her eyes open as wide as she could make them, trying to take in everything. There were a lot of Somolonaians in the first ring road, a lot of everyone, actually, aliens and humans alike, and oh, now Nora was passing her a bottle that she called Somohol. Curious as to what it was, Loren tipped it into her mouth and then turned to say, "Wow, this is amazing! What is it?"

"Somohol," Nora responded, laughing. "It makes you giddy. Doesn't it taste so much better than Earthling alcohol? I don't understand how you guys can stand that stuff. This is fruity wonder."

Loren grinned, and then took another drink, finishing the bottle quickly before asking what to do with the container. To her surprise, it disappeared, and then she realized – forcefield bottle. Nothing was ever wasted here, and it seemed, nothing was ever permanent.

She mentioned that to Nora as they pushed their way to the heart of Rachelarem, and Nora nodded. "Yeah, you're right. We don't like to place importance on things, you know? Everything is transitory, except for us. The living creatures. The sentients. We can lose everything, but as long as we don't lose our spirits, than we still are."

To her surprise, Loren found that there were tears in her eyes, and she quickly brushed them out of the way but Nora had already seen. She turned to look at Nora and her friend stopped walking, and then reached out to hold Loren's forehead to hers, and Loren tentatively responded in the same way.

"I'm sorry," Loren began, a voice just a whisper. "It's just… everything is so new here, everything is so alive, and it's so different from what I'm used to, and I feel like I spent my entire life in a grave only to come here and actually wake up…"

Nora said nothing, but simply held her friend, and soon Loren was able to release Nora and turn back to view the city's center, her eyes shining.

"Ready to start living the way of the Mayanites?" Nora asked her from her side, and Loren nodded. Yes. She was ready.

--

Appendix B: A Few Months Later

Tobias stared at the little holographic teacher, still not quite used to the idea of having an individual teacher for some of his lessons. It had been a few months since he had started living in Somolonania, and yet, every day, old customs and new customs continued to surprise him.

Mayanites didn't really have school. That was definitely something that shocked him. They called it school, but from what Tobias could see, the building was there for children, who never learned anything lecture-style. No, when it came to actually learning from a lecture, Mayanites were completely on their own, with their computers that popped up a hologram on a schedule that Tobias had had to program in on orientation day.

A mini-holographic teacher would lecture them, making sure they paid attention, and what more, making sure he actually learned. Tobias felt that he hadn't learned anything on Earth, in all eighteen years of his life, when compared to how much he was learning on Somolonania. And it wasn't even tedious – the holographic teacher made sure that the session was tuned to his individual needs and so Tobias never felt that he was being pushed too hard.

John had explained that the teacher was actually a pre-programmed lecture given by a specific teacher, and that it was fed into a bot that slowed it down or sped it up depending on what Tobias needed. And whenever Tobias asked a question that wasn't a standard or obvious question the bot could answer, the teacher was alerted so he or she could take over the hologram for the moment, giving Tobias a live-response. That question then became a bot-answerable question for other people.

He still attended some of his classes in groups, but those were all discussion classes, and were very small, and most of them were held outside. The third type of class was the practical hands-on classes, during which he would enter into a 3D computer game world, except instead of a game he would be presented with real-life problems that he would have to work through, or he would watch and go through the day of different adults working different jobs. Nora had said that you could narrow which jobs you wanted to follow as you continued to go to school, but at this point Tobias had no idea what he wanted to do.

The lesson ended and then the hologram faded, and Tobias heard John calling him. Looking over to where John was sprawled, Tobias smiled and headed over.

"Hey, Tobias, you done with classes for the day?" John asked him, and Tobias nodded. "You?"

"Almost," John responded dismissively, and Tobias knew that meant he hadn't started. "You know, John," he said. "If you don't keep to your schedule you won't be able to graduate from formal schooling."

"Who cares?" John dismissed his concerns again. "It's not like I _want_ to be an adult anyway. Boring, boring, boring. We don't have that stage like Earthlings do, between child and adult where you can have fun and not have to be responsible. It's much more gradual here, where you get a little bit more responsibility and a little bit more freedom every single year until by the time you graduate you're practically living like an adult anyway."

Tobias shrugged. "Well, I don't know. It's just a little weird for me, I guess. I mean, I'm 18. I don't feel ready to go get a job or anything. I still have this year left before I have to decide, but still…"

"Well, you don't have to move our or anything," John responded. "It's just that you can, if you want to. Your Dad won't be legally responsible for you anymore. But not a lot of kids move out right after the adult initiation ceremony. Most of them move out when they go get married, a few years later."

Tobias looked down at the floor at that. If he wasn't ready to get a job… well, he didn't even want to think about getting married.

"Hey, let's go to the Dancing Cliffs," John said suddenly, and Tobias looked up. Dancing Cliffs? Huh?

"They're really cool," John continued, and then Tobias' eyes widened as John suddenly bulged out, his face expanding before Tobias realized that John was morphing. Still a little unnerved, he watched as John slowly changed into a full length dragon, complete with resplendent scales.

Okay, let's go. 

I guess I get on his back, Tobias thought, and then he grabbed onto John's now crusted back, clinging to his long neck as John said, It's a cool morph, right? One of the Ssintha. A whole bunch came over with Alexa and the Chee as they searched for the Princess, and I asked a few if I could use their DNA to make this morph. 

"Yeah, but… you sure about this, John? Nora told me you technically aren't allowed to morph yet since you don't have a morphing license."

As usual, John brushed his worries off. Tobias, I'm the first Kyan. I'm a Founder. A Former Controller. First-hand witness to the Torture of the Princess. I am kind of famous, and it's gotta count for something, right? 

"I guess," Tobias nervously responded, and then he tightened his grasp as John rose swiftly in the air. The two flew quickly, John urging Tobias to relax a little and Tobias slowly taking his advice as they passed by plains and forests, untouched by civilization, and yet just above were great floating villages and cities, just like the one Tobias now lived in.

That's Eartharem, John explained as they passed by a comparably large city that had a large bubble over the top of it, unlike the rest. It's Earth's nature there, in its rawest form. We go there to study it, and some people go there to live there, but then you have to follow certain regulations about what you do so you don't disturb the ecological balance. 

"And that city?" Tobias asked, having to shout over the wind. He pointed before realizing that John couldn't see him, but John responded anyway. Oh, that's the City of the Dead. It's where all our graves are. It's not that big right now, but we're expecting to have problems with space eventually, as we get bigger and more entrenched. 

"City of the Dead? Why do you have them all in one floating city?"

Every year we have a ceremony there, and everyone goes and lives next to the graves of their loved ones for a week. During that time we follow the idea about Speaking for the Dead – basically there are appointed Speakers who talk about the dead person's life, and give it meaning, and explain why they did the things they did. There is a schedule and you pick a slot of time, and it's put up on the Mayanet so people can see and attend certain Speakings. It's very similar to the Day of the Dead back on Earth, except without the skulls and shrines but with the candles. Lots of candles. That's the thing I remember the most from attending the Week of Speakings. 

Tobias was silent as they begin to descend, his head still full of everything this new world had to offer. Speakings and Eartharem and untouched land and dancing cliffs…

It wasn't until he was actually on the ground with a demorphed John did he realize that just a little bit away from him were cliffs, and the ground was well… _trembling _ under his feet.

"John?" he started, but his friend laughed and said, "Watch out Tobias, here they come!"

Suddenly Tobias was flying through the air, the ground snapping under him like gigantic waves. Terrified, he opened his mouth to shout for John, when he saw the boy was running, letting the land push him further inland. Taking the hint, Tobias hit the ground and began tearing for safety, wondering why in the world he had agreed to take John's word for something. John never thought anything was dangerous or life threatening, and it often led to very bad results for his friends…

Tobias could see John slowing down, and he had just decided to put on an extra burst of speed when the ground underneath him buckled, and he found that he was flying – no, falling, he corrected himself – through the air, down, down into the gorge.

"TOBIAS!" John screamed, suddenly realizing that maybe this idea hadn't been such a good one. Nora always told him to think before he acted, but that had never been fun, and everything had always worked out in the end, hadn't it? But this time…

Morphing faster than he ever had in his entire life, John flew over the cliff as a bird, desperately searching for any sign of Tobias when he saw him, half buried in the dirt, lying on a ledge that was just wide enough to hold his prone body. Desperately relieved, John called out to him, Tobias! Tobias! 

When the body stirred, John fluttered over. Tobias, you alright? 

His friend moaned lightly, and then murmured, "What happened?"

You fell, John answered shortly, trying to keep his guilt at bay. He would get Tobias out, and then he could start thinking about what he had done wrong. Hold still, I'm going back up to the top and then I'm morphing something that can climb this cliff. 

Tobias didn't answer, but John hurried to the top anyway and five minutes later was climbing down to Tobias, using a morph native to the Dancing Cliffs. John had been so proud the day he had caught one… the day that he had convinced Nora to come and she had screamed at him when the cliffs starting dancing because she hadn't expected it. Well, that was half the fun, wasn't it? The first time he had gone he hadn't known either, and it had been better that way.

Tobias still wasn't saying anything, so John gently prodded him with sticky fingers, and then when his friend stirred, he began digging at the dirt that was partially covering Tobias body. Hold still, he ordered, thankful that he had used this morph before. It had a peculiar instinct for burrowing straight into the dirt and intensifying the geological effect of cliff dancing and it was rather hard to control.

Soon enough though Tobias was freed and Jake could grab him and pull him over his shoulder. His heightened sense of hearing picked up Tobias' wince, and so Jake took care as he climbed back over the cliffs, his long arms stretching upward to grasp the rock above him.

Back on the top, he demorphed, and then reached out to touch Tobias' shoulder. "Hey, you okay?"

Tobias lifted his head, and then groaned. "My leg hurts." His head pounding, he tried to get a hold of his surroundings. What had just happened? Oh, yes, he had been falling to his death. John must have rescued him. How kind.

"John, you don't mind if I don't really feel like going on any of your other excursions, right?"

"Naw, I deserve it," he heard his friend say, and then John told him, "Okay, Tobias, tell your computer to run a diagnostic of your body's health. Just say, Computer, run health diagnostic. And then it'll tell you whatever is wrong with you, and give you some recommendations, and after that say Computer, follow recommendations."

Tobias did as John instructed, not bothering to listen to the list that the computer rattled off. Something about a broken femur, but after telling the computer to follow recommendations, he felt the tightness of a splint around his leg. He looked down to see it straightening on its own, and then realized that it had to be a forcefield, just like everything else in Mayaneria.

"I'm going to morph again, to Somolonanian," he dimly heard John say from above him. "I can carry you in my mouth – that's how they carry baby Somolonanians. We'll get back faster that way."

Tobias tried to nod, but the effort was too much, the pain beginning to intensify as other forcefields began forcing his broken body to heal. He heard John say something about hospital, fix you right up, and then he slipped into blessed unconsciousness.

John wasn't that worried anymore. It looked like Tobias had passed out, but sometimes that happened. John could carry him back, but then John would probably have to go to jail for a really long time. Sighing, John thought for a second about calling in a C-Cat, one of robotic cats that looked like real Earthling cats, but were actually robots designed to give CPR, and then thought again about how much trouble he was going to get into, and decided not to. Tobias doesn't need a D-Dog, anyway, he reasoned, referring to the Defense Dogs who were always paired with a C-Cat. Nobody is attacking us. We just need to get back.

He picked up Tobias with his newly morphed mouth, and then began the run home, wincing at the thought of what everyone would say. Too soon, in what only seemed like a few minutes, he was back, demorphing and calling for assistance from the ground up to the Kyan Gate of his village. Tobias was taken out of his hands to a hospital, and Jake, after he explained what had happened, found himself ordered to their village jail by no less than twelve adults, including the two Nadar who manned the Kyan Gate.

Staring up at the familiar ceiling in the jail room he felt he had spent most of his childhood in, he wondered to the computer, "Is Tobias alright?"

"Yes, he's fine," the computer responded. "His injuries were very minor, nothing that couldn't be fixed in a few minutes. He wants to come visit you, actually, according to the hospital wardens, to make sure you don't feel badly about what happened."

John sighed, and then turned over onto his stomach. "Why does this always happen to me?"

The computer was silent for a moment, and then it said, "You need to grow up someday, John."

Balling his hands into fists, Jake sighed again, knowing the computer was right. Someday, he would have to grow up. Someday.

But in the meantime, with the knowledge that Tobias was fine, he couldn't help but smile slowly. Man, had that been awesome. Apart from being scared about whether Tobias was hurt seriously or not – those earth waves had been the biggest he had ever seen, and he had managed to outrace them for the first time in his life. And even morphing and going down to get Tobias… he had been like an Animorph, using different morphs to rescue him. Granted, it had been his fault that Tobias was down there, but still…

"Jake, you're smiling again," the computer intoned, and then Jake laughed out loud, not able to help it, re-living the tossing, moving earth under his feet…

Someday, yes, he would have to grow up. Just… not today.

--

Appendix C: A Year Later

Loren whipped her hair over her shoulder, smiling as it shimmered blue. She had gotten it dyed, with some sort of herbal mixture that Andalaki elderly used, and it had worked perfectly. Her normally dark-brown hair was now a bright blue that would take another herbal mixture to get off.

She looked over at John, whose already blonde hair was gold enough for him to make his excuses. Lazy John. He didn't like to do anything with his appearance, but today was special, and both Loren and Nora had made sure his holographic clothing was all gold and yellow.

Loren's clothes, on the other hand, were as blue as her hair, with different shades that danced in the sun, specifically designed by Nora for this day. Games Day, Loren said to herself, and then laughed. It sounded like some little Earthling kid game, but here, in Somolonania, it was one of the biggest deals ever. The last great game that everyone who hadn't gone through the adult initiation ceremony played.

Each village was split into half, one half blue, the other half yellow, after the blue-gold waters of Lake Saranai. Although some of the adults participated unofficially, the games were really for the children and pre-adults, most of who were ecstatically excited about the day. The two sides would compete against each other, in games ranging from mini-Olympics, to actual sports, to silly things like hopscotch, and then more mind-orientated games that Loren knew she could never win, from "who can solve this integral the fastest" to "you have thirty seconds to figure out the chemical components of this object."

"It's really fun," Nora had told her when they were getting ready. Nora was gold, like her brother, since they never separated families, but Tobias, Jake and Loren were all blue. "And it's funny too. Almost everyone forgets about it until it actually happens – nobody takes it very seriously, we're just out to have a good time."

She could see Tobias in the crowd, next to Dad and Jake, and even from far away she could see the changes the last year had wrought. Tobias actually looked at ease with himself in the crowd, and didn't keep looking around uneasily, with a tense expression that she had gotten very used to on Earth. Now he was talking to Jake and Dad, the three of them laughing about something, and Loren smiled.

She wanted to join them, but she had a job to do.

Lifting the great blue flag above her head, she grinned at John from across the stage. He also had his hand on the yellow flag, and had lifted the flag at the same time as Loren. Their eyes on each other, they began marching, waving the flags back and forth as the crowd began murmuring the vow of the Kyan, their voices swelling until the chanting was all around her. She closed her eyes and let it wash over her, adding her voice to the thousands of Kyan to whom Mayaneria meant so much more than just a country, to whom Somolonania meant so much more than just a planet.

Loren repeated the last words, and then opened her eyes to find that John's were shining as they paused in the middle of the stage, face to face. The vow began again, and she and John said the words together, not moving their eyes, staying right where they were.

At the end, when the people began chanting the vow once more, their volume increasing, John whispered to her, "Loren… you remember when we first met?"

"How could I forget?" she responded. "The day my life first began to change."

She was so beautiful, John reflected. Even with her crazy blue hair. Her eyes still dark and filled with a deep sorrow that he wanted to pull her out of. Loren was one of those who had cried alone, with no one to hear her pleas. And even now, he knew that she still held her sadness within her, and focused on making sure her family was happy.

He had seen her grow, from the selfish and self-loathing young girl she had been on Earth, to a not-quite-woman whose first objective was to serve whole-heartedly the people around her. Everyone who noticed commented, and it was hard not to notice Loren's smile, her soft grace. So different from Nora's practical-ness, John thought, and yet they both believe in loving their neighbors.

"Only a week until we become adults," John said suddenly, and he saw Loren nod. "You ready?"

She hesitated, and then asked, "Are you?"

Startled at the question, John lapsed into silence, and then said, "I'm almost twenty now, you know that? I started my schooling late, because of the Yeerks and Vampire Spiders and everything. It's… it's been a good twenty years. But…"

He stopped, and then swallowed, not wanting to say the words but knowing they had to be said. "But I am ready. I'm scared, and I don't know what it's going to be like, having to take responsibility for my actions and not just go to jail, but… I am ready."

He saw Loren nod slowly once more, and then impulsively he added, "But Loren… can I do one more crazy random thing before I have to grow up?'

The sound around them swelled upwards, reaching its peak as the end of the third repetition neared. Loren looked at John curiously, wondering what he was thinking. His face was as earnest as it always was, and she couldn't help but smile just a little at those puppy eyes that he used all the time, without even realizing it, when trying to convince Nora of something.

One last crazy thing… well, she knew that it would have something to do with her. And him. Together. John was like no other guy she had ever spent time with, with his child-like nature and yet his serious interest in government and politics. Loren had seen him switch between the two moods instantly, and had loved him in both. They hadn't spoken about their future yet, but it had been almost two years since they had met in that party on Earth, and Loren could sense that it was time.

She was looking at him inquiringly, with those eyes that drove him crazy, and then he saw a hint of a smile on her face. Taking that as a yes, he dropped his flag just as the chanting of the vow finished, and then he reached for her, taking her head in his hands as he kissed her, not even noticing as her flag also dropped, neither of them caring when the entire crowd began cheering and clapping, making as much as noise as possible.

The kiss ended without either of them knowing how, and John gasped and turned his face away before Loren reached out to turn it towards her.

"That was my first kiss," John admitted, and then Loren grinned before reaching out for him.

"And this will be your second."

--

Appendix D: A Few Years Later

"_Remember, Tobias. They don't care about why you want to apply for a morphing license. You could say because your older brother has it and you want it too. All they care about is that you're honest. If you want it because you feel like it will help you baby-sit your kids, then tell them that. If you don't know why you want it, say so."_

His computer's screen flashed, and Tobias pulled himself up off the grass to head inside to the lemonade-like stand that he had been told was the morphing license center. He hadn't believed it at first, when he had first arrived on Somolonania, but he had quickly realized that without a need to store papers or anything, really, all the centers all over Mayaneria were lemonade stands.

But now he had been living on the planet for three years, and so without a second thought he walked over to the now free morphing license center.

"And your name is Tobias?" the woman behind the stand asked, and Tobias nodded. "And why do you want to apply for the morphing power?"

Tobias remembered John's advice, and said, "Well… I'm going to ask this girl to marry me."

He stopped, trying not to blush, but the woman's knowing smile was too much. He turned away for a moment and considered very briefly tearing out of there, but it had been three years since he had been that Tobias and after a moment he turned back.

"And…" he started again. "I want to get rid of these."

He reached up to touch his face, and he saw the woman's eyes flash pity. She asked him no more questions, but instead told him to come around to the back, where she quickly mind-scanned him and then pointed to the morphing pad waiting for him.

"Put your hand on the pad," she instructed. "It will take your DNA and register you as a morpher, and give you the morphing power at the same time. We have olate bird DNA for your first time, which you have to try with me so we can make sure there is nothing peculiar about your case."

Tobias nodded, took a deep breath, and then put his hand on the pad. After he felt the tingle, he moved to put his thumb on the isolated DNA, and then concentrated on the great flying blue bird native to Somolonania, imagining that he could feel the DNA going through him.

When he was done he opened his eyes, and turned to the woman. She nodded, and then said, "Okay, just concentrate on the bird in your mind, and you will morph."

He nodded slowly, and then hesitated.

"What's wrong?"

"I… is it okay… is it okay if I ask her first, and then come back? I… I need to know that she'll take me now, as I am," he finally admitted, not wanting to be this honest with a stranger, but knowing that he should be. He looked up to see the understanding in her face as she replied, "Of course."

Tobias nodded again, and then a few minutes later he was riding on a Somobus, traveling through the village back to his home. The morphing center was on the other side of the village, and it wouldn't take that long for him to walk back, but he enjoyed riding the Somobus whenever he could, and he also wanted to get back to his house and to Nora, Nora and John who still lived right next door.

John and Loren were engaged, and had been ever since they had kissed on the stage in front of their entire village. Tobias grinned at the memory, thinking it was so typical of John to do that, and so like Loren to respond the way they did. But Dad had told Loren that he didn't think either of them were quite ready for married life, and Loren, always eager to listen to her father, had agreed to not get married instantly to John. They had been together for two years now, and Tobias could definitely tell that his father's advice had been good for both of them.

Waiting will make you patient, Dad had said, and he was really right, Tobias reflected. I waited my entire life to be free, and I've been waiting to tell the girl that I met four years ago… that I love her.

Tobias wasn't sure how they did this whole marriage thing in Mayaneria, but from what he had gathered, parents were a lot more involved than they were on Earth, or at least in America. Matches were suggested by parents, and the children could take them or not. They could also use the singles database provided on the MayaNet to see who they matched with, the computer using a number of statistical tests that Tobias still didn't quite understand.

Since Nora and John didn't have parents though, things were a little different for them. Tobias had first asked his father, and his father had thought it was a good idea, and then he had asked John, who wholeheartedly agreed, and then Loren, and she had thought it was too adorable, and then Jake, who had gone off on some sort of personality analysis of the two that Tobias hadn't really understood, but had at least gotten a positive sense from. John had told him to ask Alexa and Jeremy as well, and so Tobias had done. Alexa had told him that in Mayaneria, it was done a little bit more equally, with the girl and the boy asking their own families respectively, but this was one tradition that Tobias wanted to do the Earthling way.

Getting off the Somobus, he stared first at his floating house, and then at Nora's. He started for Nora's, and then at the last moment diverted his course and went back into his, breathing heavily.

His father was at the kitchen table, and looked up as Tobias came in.

"Dad, I can't do this."

Dad's face was serious, and he gestured Tobias to sit down. Tobias did so, and then said again, "Dad, I can't do this."

His father was silent for a moment, and then said, "You know how I asked your mother to marry me?"

Tobias shook his head, and for a moment forgot his fears. His father never really liked to talk about his mother, mostly since his last memory was of killing her, but sometimes, when his children needed it, he did so.

"We were both young. Not as young as you are, but just a year or two older. I was a police officer, just newly started my job, and I had just made my first arrest – my brother."

Tobias nodded slowly, trying not to think of his uncle. He held his breath until his father continued.

"I was crying, and your mother was comforting me, and then in the middle of that I turned around and asked her, Becky, will you marry me? She was so surprised, she stared at me for a moment, and I was afraid she was going to say no, but then, she kissed me. We used to laugh about how she never actually said yes, she just kissed me, and that was it."

Tobias smiled at the idea, and then Dad said, "So Tobias, you can't do any worse than I did. You may be terrified, but I can tell you for sure that Nora is terrified about the fact that you haven't asked her yet, and she's waiting for you in that house right now."

"Thanks, Dad," Tobias responded weakly, and then his father put his hand over his for a moment, and tears almost came to Tobias' eyes at the simple touch. He had missed out on so much during those fifteen years, but now, they were together.

Standing up, he cleared his throat, and then met his father's eyes. "Thanks," he said again, and then smiled before striding out of the door, walking quickly up to Nora's house before he could change his mind. The door recognized him and let him in without announcing him when he signaled it not to, and he walked in on a surprised Nora who was experimenting with cooking something in the kitchen.

He stood at the doorway of the kitchen, just looking at her, and Nora suddenly realized, he's come here to ask me to marry me. Quickly she put down the bowl in her hand, and then realized there was stuff all over her face, but before she could wipe it off, Tobias had covered the distance between them and was now standing right in front of her.

I hope I don't look too awful, she thought. I knew Tobias was going to do it the Earthling way, but that way makes me so nervous! Maybe we can have a proper Mayanite Marriage Meeting after this proposal.

But when she looked up at Tobias, her thoughts melted away. He looked so timid, and she couldn't help but remember the day she had first met him, curled up on the ground trying to hide from the punishing blows of the bullies she had rescued him from. He had changed a lot since then, but those scars still reminded her of everything he had gone through, and everything he had overcome.

She reached up to touch his cheek, and then found his hand on hers, and slowly they touched foreheads, his mouth next to her ear as he whispered, "Nora… will you marry me?"

Nora burst into tears, and she could feel Tobias' alarm as he tried to pull back to look at her. But she refused to let him, and held him tightly against her head.

"Yes," she whispered back, the tears still coming. "Yes, yes, yes, yes."

"But what about…"

"But what, Tobias? What? Tobias, there is nothing else here, but you and me, no one else and we have nothing to fear. A thousand times yes, Tobias, yes, I will marry you, yes I will be your wife, yes, yes, yes."

Tobias blinked and realized there were tears in his eyes as well. She hadn't even mentioned his scars. She hadn't even thought of them. She…

Nervously and more than a little terrified that she would refuse, he moved his head so that their lips met, and he gave her the first kiss he had ever given of his free will. When she responded, earnestly and eagerly, he closed his eyes, letting her words and her love heal him of all the scars and hurts he had ever suffered.

I love you, Nora, he thought to her, and then he kissed her again, and again, and again.

--

Appendix E: A Few More Years Later

"Maya!" Jake called out to his niece. "Maya, come here!"

The girl giggled, and then stuck out her tongue at her fourteen-year-old uncle. "No," she responded petulantly, and then she waited for him to pick her up and tickle her, as she screamed in delight.

"You're spoiling my daughter," her mother called out, but her uncle shook his head. "Oh, I'm not, Nora. A little no here and there doesn't mean she's spoiled."

Maya could hear the teasing in the two adult's tones, but she paid no attention to it, and instead prodded her uncle with a tiny hand, insisting on more fun. She screamed again when he lifted her up in the air, laughing as he swung her around, again and again.

Jake smiled as the girl laughed, and then turned at the sound of Saranai Eun-hee giggling with her younger sister Mayanmar Helen, both of them daughters of the Princess. Saranai was one of his students, and was a very good student, and the two of them had become friends despite the fact that the girl was a good four years older than her. And wherever Saranai went, her youngest sister Mayanamar went with her, the eight year age difference seemingly making no difference to their friendship.

And there was Tobias, playing with little Timothy, and Jake's father, watching the two with obvious delight. Loren and John were holding hands, talking to Alexa, and Jeremy was earnestly discussing something with the Princess' middle two daughters, Anna Samantha and Rachel Keav. The Princess was missing, gone on some diplomatic party, but the royal daughters, as the four were teasingly called, had become good friends with the Tem family, and often came over to visit.

Jake pulled Maya up onto his hip, and then wandered over to where John was laughing loudly about something Loren had just said. Loren was glowing, visibly pregnant. And it had only been a few months since they got married, Jake thought with a smile. Loren and Jake had earned it though. Engaged for six years before getting married – now that was a feat that he had never thought they could accomplish.

Sure enough, when Jake got closer, he could hear the four of them talking about it, Jeremy having joined Alexa, John and Loren's conversation.

"You guys didn't waste any time," he said, his dry tone always wanting to make Jake laugh. Things sounded so much funnier when Jeremy said them, he reflected.

It had been seven years since he had come to Somolonania. Half his life, and he felt more at home than he had ever felt on Earth. Things had changed so much, and he loved every change, loved every new day for what it brought. John and Loren had moved into John and Nora's old house, and that was fine and good, and Tobias and Nora lived just down the street, and Jake and his father still lived in the house they had first moved into seven years ago, and that was the best of all. Jake never wanted to leave that house. To him it meant every change, every twisting turn that only made his life better and better.

Looking at the small crowd gathered in his backyard, he couldn't help but smile. This was what Mayaneria was about. Life, and loving the lives around you.

"And when are you two going to get married?" he heard John return, and Jake turned to see John's face full of laughter. "I mean, you already share an apartment, you already work together on everything – it's been so many years!"

Jeremy smiled, and shook her head, turning to playfully grin at Alexa. "Marry her? That would be like marrying my daughter!"

Alexa turned in mock affront. "Daughter? Excuse me, sir, but I think I'm actually four years older than you. Watch who you call daughter!"

The group laughed, as Alexa and Jeremy continued to banter, Little Timothy playing at his father's feet as his sister was lifted into the air once more by Jake. Saranai also grinned as she joked with her youngest sister Mayanamar, both of them complaining and bragging about how their names were Andalaki names. Loren reached out for John's hand, and they smiled at each other, waiting for her unborn child, and Timothy looked at his daughter and his sons and his grandchildren, and was at peace.

Only Nora noticed the sharp quick glance that Alexa and Jeremy had given each other when John spoke of their marriage.

**Author's Note**

And that's the end of Toomin's Last Game! Coming up next is Alexa and Jeremy's story, scenes from their lives!


End file.
